When Amateurs Run Sports, Athletes Fall: The Bannu Incident Is Not an Accident, It Is an Indictment

 

Musarrat Ullah Jan , KikxNow ,Digital Creator

Every time a young athlete collapses on the field, the same script follows. Statements are issued. Regret is expressed. Committees are formed. A few days later, silence returns. The incident is quietly filed away as an “unfortunate accident.” What happened in peshawar with Bannu player, where a student athlete from Government High School Mumkhel Bannu fell during an inter-school event, fits this familiar pattern. But calling it an accident is dishonest. It was the direct result of a broken system that continues to hand sports over to people who neither understand it nor are trained to manage it.

The uncomfortable question must be asked, clearly and without hesitation:
Why is the secretary or chief organizer of inter-school games usually a school principal?
What professional relationship does a principal have with sports management, athlete safety, or injury prevention?

A school principal is an administrator and an educationist. That role deserves respect. But administration and sports are not interchangeable disciplines. Sports management is not about paperwork, circulars, or attendance sheets. It is a technical field that requires knowledge of physical conditioning, risk assessment, ground safety, medical preparedness, and emergency response. When these responsibilities are assigned to non-professionals, the consequences are not theoretical. They are physical, immediate, and sometimes irreversible.

The Bannu player  incident exposed this reality in the most painful way. A young athlete went down on the field. Only after that did questions begin to surface. Was there a medical team on site? Was an ambulance available and ready? Was the playing surface inspected? Were the athletes properly warmed up? Who was responsible for technical supervision of the event?

These questions should have been answered before the first whistle, not after a player hit the ground. The fact that they were not tells us everything about how school sports are treated.

This is not about blaming an individual principal or a single school. This is about a structure that normalizes incompetence in sports governance. Inter-school games fall under the education department, but sports itself is not an academic subject that can be managed through routine administration. It is a professional domain. Treating it otherwise is negligence, not simplicity.

In practice, inter-school sports in our system are reduced to formalities. The objective is not athlete development or safety. The objective is to “conduct the event.” Once the schedule is completed and a report is submitted, the system considers the job done. Whether athletes were protected, supervised, or medically covered becomes secondary, if it is considered at all.

This mindset explains why injuries keep repeating. It explains why every few months a similar story emerges from another district, another school, another field. The names change. The locations change. The excuses remain the same.

The most troubling aspect is that trained professionals already exist within the system. Physical education teachers, sports officers, qualified coaches, and even medical personnel are available. Yet they are sidelined. They are asked to assist, not to lead. They are present for decoration, not decision-making. Authority is concentrated in administrative offices, far from the realities of the field.

Globally, school sports are treated as a serious component of youth development. Events are preceded by safety audits. Medical teams are mandatory. Coaches and sports scientists play a central role. Principals oversee policy and coordination, not technical execution. The logic is simple. You do not ask a finance officer to perform surgery. Then why ask an administrator to run a sports competition?

In our case, the system works in reverse. Sports are treated as extracurricular noise. Budgets are minimal. Safety is optional. Medical cover is arranged “if possible.” When something goes wrong, the word “unfortunate” is used to close the discussion.

The fall of the Bannu athlete should have forced a reckoning. Instead, it risks becoming just another entry in a long list of avoidable failures. The danger lies not only in the injury itself but in the response to it. When responsibility is blurred, accountability disappears. Committees replace action. Silence replaces reform.

There is also a persistent tendency to shift blame. After such incidents, fingers are often pointed at sports departments, even when the event is entirely under the education department’s control. This confusion serves only one purpose: protecting the system from scrutiny. No one is clearly responsible, so no one is held responsible.

This culture is destructive. It sends a message that athlete safety is negotiable. It tells young players that their bodies matter less than bureaucratic convenience. It reassures administrators that incompetence has no cost.

The truth is harsh but unavoidable. As long as non-professionals continue to control sports, athletes will continue to suffer. Injuries will keep happening. Talent will be wasted. Trust will erode. And each time, the system will express regret and move on. The solution is neither complex nor unrealistic. It requires intent.

Inter-school games must be technically led by qualified sports professionals.
Every event must have mandatory medical coverage, including emergency response readiness. Risk assessments of grounds and equipment must be compulsory, not optional.
The role of principals should remain administrative and coordinative, not technical.
Clear lines of responsibility must be established, and failure must have consequences.

Sports are not ceremonies. Athletes are not statistics. A young player stepping onto a field places trust in the system that claims to protect him. When that trust is betrayed, the damage goes beyond physical injury. It damages belief, confidence, and futures.

The Bannu incident is not a tragic exception. It is evidence. Evidence that the current model does not work. Evidence that silence after injury is a form of complicity.

This is not a call for sympathy. It is a demand for professionalism. Either sports are treated as a serious discipline, or we must accept that more athletes will fall, again and again, while institutions look the other way.

The question is no longer what happened in Bannu. The real question is how many more athletes must fall before the system admits it is wrong.

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