When Athletes Travel by Bus and Officials Fly First Class

 

Musarrat Ullah Jan – KikxNow , digital creator

Sports in Pakistan reflects a deeper national illness. It is not a management flaw, it is a mindset. The athlete is treated as a beneficiary, not the core product. The official is seen as the stakeholder. This inversion explains why players pay their own travel, sign forms they never read, and arrive at national competitions already exhausted. It also explains why complaints of mistreatment are received as attitude problems, not administrative failures.

The recent handling of travel for the National Games is a classic example. Instead of a coordinated transport plan, every athlete was handed a sum of money and told to “manage it.” This was described as facilitation, but it was simply avoidance of responsibility. A system that claims credit for participation should at least own the cost and the risk. At the most basic level, athletes representing the country should not be deciding between an unreliable bus or a delayed train while officials enjoy the comfort of organized flights and booked accommodation.

The pattern is familiar. When players deliver medals, institutions celebrate themselves. When they fail, the blame is pushed down with remarkable speed. The fact remains that peak performance is not created by talent alone. It is built by preparation, recovery, nutrition and logistics. Traveling forty eight hours in cramped seats is not preparation. It is punishment disguised as policy.

Another disturbing trend is the financial opacity. Stories of athletes signing for twenty one thousand rupees and receiving eleven are not surprising. That is the problem. Nothing shocks anymore. Athletes no longer ask questions because they know the response. “We released the funds. What they do is their choice.” The bureaucracy claims compliance, the middle tier claims ambiguity, and the player bears the consequences.

Respect is not symbolic. It is procedural. If a system values athletes, it reflects in how they are selected, trained, transported, fed and represented. When a gymnast says he is leaving to another city because there he is treated like a professional and here like a burden, it should be a wake up call. Instead, it becomes another short lived headline.

Comparisons with global standards are often called unrealistic. Yet the expectation of global results remains high. Countries that excel invest in fundamentals. Sports science, injury management, mentorship, mental coaching and structured travel are basics, not luxuries. The distance between Pakistan and success is not medals. It is priorities.

Until decision making moves from ceremonial to strategic, little will change. Until budgets are tracked with the same strictness applied to athletes’ discipline, improvement is unlikely. Until respect becomes a policy instead of a speech, talent will keep migrating, quitting or underperforming.

The real issue is not lack of resources. It is lack of responsibility. Money exists, platforms exist, facilities exist. But they exist for the wrong people. The players should be the center, not an afterthought. National representation is not a favor granted to them. It is a service they perform for the country.

The question is simple. If officials deserve comfort for managing sports, do athletes not deserve comfort for playing sports? If the answer is anything but yes, then we should stop expecting results that belong to systems that function, not systems that excuse.

Pakistan does not lack athletes. Pakistan lacks belief in athletes. And belief is not expressed in words. It is expressed in how they are treated before the match, not after the medal ceremony.

Real reform begins the day the player becomes the priority.

#SportsManagement  #AthletesFirst  #AccountabilityInSports  #PakistanSportsReform  #RespectAthletes  #FundingTransparency  #FairPlayOffTheField  #SportsSystemOverhaul
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