The Grounds Are Being Built, But Where Are the Athletes?

 

Musarrat Ullah Jan – Kikxnow Digital Creator

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said in his first meeting that sports grounds will be made in all districts of the province. On the face of it, this is an extremely welcome statement. With a province that has the highest youth population, enhancing opportunities for sport is something to be welcomed. But the question that has to be asked is: Is it limited to just a statement, or is there serious planning involved?

The question is not whether grounds are to be constructed or not. The question is: Does the Chief Minister realize that sport fields already exist in nearly every district? Although indeed a need where they are not, the province's actual problem is not lack of grounds, but lack of athletes, decay of the system, and sports politics.

Over the last couple of years, numerous buildings, gymnasiums, courts, and stadiums were developed under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Directorate. But a tour to these grounds provides a harsh reality: the grounds are empty, and the players are absent. A ground was constructed, a building was raised, but the essence of the sport disappeared from inside it.

And the question is: Do sports merely mean building structures, or do they mean building sportspeople? If everything were about construction, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be Pakistan's number one province when it comes to sports. The reality is that the system of sports is in shambles, and its primary cause is corruption.

Has anyone ever taken a survey of which sport, apart from cricket, is experiencing a rise in the number of players? Perhaps not. The reality is that cricket alone remains, and that too because people are invested in it. If anything is being seen after cricket, it is in Squash. But people's interest in Squash isn't growing because players are performing well; because it has become a way of migrating abroad.

The state of other sports is very poor. Classic sports such as Hockey, Volleyball, Athletics, Badminton, and Kabaddi are fading away at the grassroots level. No competitions are being held in schools and colleges, there is silence at the nursery level, and kids interested in playing do not even have basic facilities.

The reasons are obvious: sports associations are not subsidized. Sports gear has become unaffordable for the common athlete. Competitions at nursery level do not take place. Developmental budgets are ineffective at the grassroots. And most importantly, the Sports Department has been taken over by individuals who know contract work, not sport.

The Sports Department has staff who have their own construction companies. They bid for jobs in other peoples' names but do the work through their own means. A "Thousand Facilities" sports scheme was initiated, but money was raised by over-costing each building by three times. Numerous cars have vanished, projects have been going on without money for three years now, and no one is raising questions as to where all these financial malpractices will take us.

The Dera Ismail Khan fake recruitment scandal is one such case. Six months' salary was distributed and then the file was shut. No body questioned whose instructions were obeyed. Neither was it explained on whose authority petrol and money were being used.

The underlying problem is that the individuals actually engaged in sport—the ones who train every day in the sun, the athletes—have no infrastructure or assistance. But the ones who work in the offices and sweet-talk the bosses are the ones who become the favored ones. They are funded, taken on foreign trips, and endorsed. That's why the Sports Department has now developed into a culture of political reference and patronage.

Chief Minister Sahib, your intentions may not be questioned, but you must realize that sports is no longer a building project; it's a reflection of a social system. If you listen only to the contractors, the same will occur as in the past—a building will be raised, an inauguration will be done, but emptiness will prevail within.

You ought to be aware that 32 Futsal facilities are in the process of being constructed in the province, including within the 8 consolidated districts. But why construct Futsal facilities where there is plenty of land? The true demand there is for producing athletes, not additional construction projects.

Restoring public confidence is the largest challenge in the sport industry today. If the government wants change, it needs to create a policy rather than construct grounds. A policy safeguarding athletes from the nursery level to the provincial and national level, protecting their training, financial assistance, and opportunities.

It is also important to constitute a separate audit and investigation panel to scrutinize the sports funds, contracts, and projects of the last five years thoroughly. The money of the people should be spent on the people's children for sports, not credited to the bank accounts of contractors.

Chief Minister Sohail Afridi must begin this new era on realistic lines, not on announcements. Sports is not about the ground; it's about conditioning the mind and body. Unless the sports policy is cleansed of corruption, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's grounds will lie vacant, and the aspirations of its youth will be buried in paperwork from the office. It's time to mend this system, to open funding doors to the real soldiers of sport, and not to those who regard it as a contract business. Because the grounds will be constructed, but where will the players come from?

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