Sports goods market is experiencing a huge slump in its overall sales--by 50 percent to 60 percent--during the holy month of Ramazan as compared to past years, it is learnt. However, there has been a significant growth in the sale of indoor sports items, particularly carom, by 30 to 40 percent this year in Ramazan.
Lighthouse sports market gives a deserted look during the holy month of Ramazan, which is unusual in the metropolis. Sports lovers in Ramazan arrange month-long cricket, football, and carom tournaments in all 18 towns as sports tradition, but this year such sporting activities have not been initiated in full swing for various reasons.
M Asif Qureshi, of Sheraton Sports at Lighthouse sports market, held high inflation a one of the reasons which have badly hit the purchasing power of the people. "People are more worried about purchasing of essential commodities than sports goods in recent years," he said.
Regarding the sale of cricket-related sport items, he said it had also gone down during last few years. However, the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy may spur its sales. He said that badminton season would give impetus to the sales of rackets in the next few months as soon as winter sets in, while the sales of cricket-related sports items remained marginally high during the academic vacations in June and July every year.
Asif said that the onset of Chinese sports items in the market had brought the local manufacturers on their knees. "Just one local firm is producing rackets which is also expensive to buy," he added.
He said that price is the major hindrance in the growth of racket sales as mostly people go for China-made rackets, which are available at reasonable price.
"Locally produced rackets are not price-competitive as they are many times higher in price than Chinese," he said. Another sports goods dealer said that sports activities had been struck by lack of facilities and sports grounds, besides proper coaching institutions in the city.
"Youths are more inclined towards computer-games than sports as compared to past several years when the computers were not so common," he said. "The sale of cricket-related items may increase with the bright performance of Pakistan cricket team in the ICC Champions Trophy being played in India," he hoped.
Regarding the China's drive to produce cricket bats, he said it would be difficult for China to compete with local products because bats production is a long process, which China mostly avoids.
"China believes in mass production and produces machine-made cricket bats, which are not up to the international standard and will not affect the domestic market in short run," he said.