Pakistan was born on 14 August,1947 and thus has a very short history of its existence as a nation spanning over seven decades. It, due to its earlier history and connection with mainland India-Bharat, inherited a rich legacy of civilization, art, culture and other great historical iconic Centres in the world. However, due to its religio-political mindset, hatred against India and in pursuit of its newly adopted official policies, Pakistan disconnected itself with its thousands of years old civilizational ethos, history and culture.
Pakistan gave birth to a new nationhood that went quite contrary to its earlier long history before partition, geographical associations and social formulations; and wittingly and unwittingly presented itself to the aftermath of its wrong decisions and their resultant effect that had to come sooner or later.
Almost eight decades now, as per its own former and current Prime Minister, Pakistan has been reduced to a virtual ‘beggar-state’. This was and is being admitted publicly by its leaders of the stature of Imran Khan (who is currently in jail confinement), Shehbaz Sharif (the current Prime Minister), Anwar Ul Haq Kakar (former caretaker PM) and others.
They said in their addresses to the nation a number of times previously that they felt humiliated and embarrassed to ask for funds and monetary help from their friends like Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, Turkey and even IMF, World Bank, US and Iran. This is symbolic of the failure of the nation-state called Pakistan that was forced to take birth only seven decades ago exclusively on the basis of religion and a separate identity.
The current status, stature and scenario of politics, economics and sports in Pakistan give a vivid picture of this failure at a societal level and thus speaks volumes about the strong declining trend that remains unabated. We will today in the column ahead debate about the broader picture of the sports in Pakistan that has an overwhelming impact on the psyche of the citizens of all hues of Pakistan.
There were earlier very prominent sports-persons from a number of sports in Pakistan who made a mark on the international stage. With the passage of time, their replacements couldn’t be created or groomed by the Pakistan society at large and particularly by the responsible authorities in the country. The result is for everyone to observe and see. The current state of sports in Pakistan has reached its nadir with the course of time.
As in the other fields, the obsession of opposing India, Hindus and anything relating to the prosperity and growth of India, Pakistan sports in general also inherited this ‘obsession’ lock, stock and barrel and adopted it as a ‘national mission’. Instead of developing as an independent & forward-looking sports-nation in the world, Pakistan’s only aim in sports by and large remained specifically to defeat India by hook or by crook on any given available platform. This has been the main mental make-up of the Pakistan national sports policy over the last more than five long decades.
When the first Asian Games were held in New Delhi in 1951, Pakistan didn’t participate in it. But in the 1954 Asian Games in Manila, it participated and won 14 medals including 5 gold medals. Subsequently in the 1958 Asian Games, it won a gold medal in Hockey followed again by the gold medal in Rome Olympics in 1960. Hockey was the premier national sport of Pakistan thereafter; and it went ahead with great success internationally in this sport which accorded it a top position among the global competitors.
Pakistan won 8 and 14 medals in Hockey in Olympics and Asiad which included 3 gold and 8 gold respectively. In addition, it has been the World champion four times and has played the finals in the World championship 6 times. It had become a big powerhouse of hockey globally for a long period of three decades up to the end of 1980s.
By the beginning of the 1990s, it slowly began to lose its strong grip on the game at an international platform and also at the regional level. Pakistan got its last podium finish in hockey at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, when its men’s team won a bronze medal by defeating Netherlands. It was followed by the podium finish and championship triumph in the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in 1994 in Sydney, Australia. It is now for the last three decades that Pakistan has virtually reconciled to its dismal performance in the game and has ceased to be of any sort of inspiration for the younger generations therein.
In the course of time, the disastrous condition of hockey in Pakistan was replicated in cricket too. Most of the commentators, sports journalists and analysts in Pakistan consider cricket as the only and the last effective source of entertainment in their country in the given socio-political scenario at the national level. Once upon a time, Pakistan was considered as a frontline cricketing nation in the world. It produced very high quality players and game-icons at an international level having potential to challenge any top teams including Australia, India, England and the former mighty West Indies.
Pakistan has won 3 major senior men’s ICC trophies in its cricket history i.e. ODI World cup in 1992, T20I World cup in 2009 and the Champions Trophy in 2017. Besides this, it has won the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup twice in 2004 & 2006. The decline in the game began in the period 2013-2018 but it went down pathetically after 2017. It is almost a decade now that Pakistan cricket has gone into terrible doldrums and has lost its sheen completely. Ever since India decided to stop bilateral series with Pakistan, it has further added insult to the injury. The degree and stature of the game has surely come down and the only permanent feature that has remained is consistent defeats and consequent embarrassments to the nation.
Even at the regional level, both the teams of Pakistan, men’s and women’s, have not been able to display any quality and standard in their outings. Their men’s team won Asia cup twice, the last in the year 2010 (16 years ago) and the women’s team never won it though it participated in 10 tournaments till date. Their current training, skill levels, qualification pattern and talent selection have reached a big sorry state of affairs. The developments during their recent England tour have further exposed the whole pandora-box publicly with allegations of indiscipline, wrong selections, cyber crimes involving senior players and consequent investigations and ban.
Then their obsession with comparison and contrast with India has further put them in a situation of global humiliation and shame. For the last five years, they aren’t able to win any match against Team India on the ground but are vociferous on regular media and especially the social media to raise all sorts of issues and keep on discussing irrelevant stories about ICC, BCCI, Indian players, management and money control. It will require herculean efforts to lift cricket in Pakistan again given the situation as it exists now.
Pakistan had been the international champion of Squash for decades. It had a virtual sway over all others at a global level. Icons after icons of the game belonging to Pakistan virtually ruled in a row and didn’t allow anyone to defeat them on the Court. It has won World Team Squash championships 6 times while its individual players dominated the winning spree 14 times by being victorious in Men’s World open championships. Their domination was very formidable up to the turn of the 21st century. Thereafter, the game, its players and all connected structures crumbled disastrously in a span of one decade and thus the four-decade wonderful history of Squash in Pakistan came to a virtual naught.
In the early years of Pakistan, there were a number of wrestlers who won medals in Olympics and Asian Games and also had podium finishes in other important international championships and events. There were recognised training structures available throughout the country about this age-old sport. But apathy at the level of the management, government and also at the level of the society brought it to its lowest level. Unfortunately for Pakistan, the radicalisation of society, religious fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism over the last four decades sucked the national talent, skill and young minds towards their fold. For all of them, terrorism came out to be their de facto ‘national sport’ in a practical sense.
Over the last decade, Pakistan produced a Javelin thrower in Arshad Nadeem who created a sensation in the Paris Olympics 2024 by throwing one of the best & longest throws in history touching almost 93 meters. He was earlier way behind Neeraj Chopra, the Indian champion, but in the 2024 historic event, he created a new history. However, he has again lost his rhythm and control due to several factors and is in his worst struggling phase which was evident in his recent exhibition in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026.
Then there are several sports in which Pakistan doesn’t take part at all due to their religio-social embargo, particularly in relation to the female participation in the games and sports of their choice. A number of their players in various sports have been observed taking more interest in their controversial religious issues on the ground than their regular sports activism and practice.
The overwhelming control of sports by the political bosses has severely damaged the sports environment in entire Pakistan. It will take a long time to reverse the situation particularly when the senior and retired players virtually disassociated themselves from any functional participation in the rejuvenation of the overall sports scenario and it seems endless for the time being….!
