Autumn in our sports

Asif victory defeating Gary Wilson of UK in Amateur Snooker Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria on Sun 2nd Dec earning a gold medal is not that simple thing as one may think of rather on the contra it is very big and remarkable achievement not for his own self but for Pakistan as well particularly at this point of time when we are dried up for quite some time in many different sports be it cricket or hockey or athletics etc to name a few. It is very heartening to read that Asif on his return to Faisalabad, the place he belongs to, has been very warmly welcomed both by the officials and the general public. Heroic vehicular procession from Airport to down town took pretty long time spanning over hours together though otherwise it takes much less than an hour to cover the same distance.  All those who watched him passing through their localities simply could not help praising and praying for him. He has been given 100,000 by the local administration while Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shanbaz Sharif has already announced 1 million rupees for him and many more awards both in cash and kind will be given to him in days to come from various companies, organizations etc. I am very sure that in addition to above, some individuals too in their pure personal capacity will honor Asif for earning such a prestigious award for our beloved country.

 It will be very much pertinent to just look at a glance as to how hard it must had been for Asif to reach to this level where he could compete with none but those who are scaled up to international level. It must also be remembered that in Pakistan our players do not have same facilities and opportunities what others have in Europe and other such like advanced countries so in our case it is mostly the player himself or herself to exert more and put in extra efforts to shine out. As a matter of fact sports facilities themselves attract those who have some interest in the game and once someone joins then the prevailing atmosphere punctuated with the facilities and amenities polish the player to a great extent so from this angle our Asif or anyone else pursuing any sport is at a great advantage but what could we do about it. Moreover, if we compare earning of our players with those whom they compete with at international level it will be transparently crystal clear that the others are far better placed and more affluent than others which again puts extra pressure on our players to improve and sharpen their sports skills. In this case one does not need to engage in tedious search programs because it is very much apparent on the face of it that Gary coming from UK is definitely far better placed than Asif on many counts. On top of it even from spectators’ point of view quite many people both male and female know snooker in UK so there is always huge public support available for Gray whereas in case of Asif hardly anyone knows what game he plays and when a person who does not know the game cannot appreciate and applaud the player in any case.  It reminds me of late 1961 when I was in FA (1^st year) and had gone to Batkhela, Swat for camp training with Red Cross for about three weeks. One Sunday I was in Mingora where in a hotel I asked the owner to switch on radio so that I could listen running commentary of cricket test being played in India and quite naturally at times I shouted in excitement and unbelievably some Sawati sitting next to me who did not know what cricket can be at one point applauded Pakistan and said something like ‘one more goal’.

Not only I but you too must be remembering that there was a time when we were earning gold after few years in between if not annually either on individual basis or at team level on one account or the other in different games at different levels be it Asian Games or Olympics etc but then came autumn which perhaps gripped us till 1^st Dec., 2012.