Sports express the identification of nations. For instance, when we talk about Australia the first thing that comes into our mind is that they are the cricket world champions or Brazil as the football ones.
There was a time when Pakistan was among the countries which was producing super stars in the world of sports whether in cricket, hockey, squash, etc, but unfortunately today the scenario has totally changed.
If we talk about hockey, we had a number of stars who were ruling the hockey world like Shahbaz, Sohail Abbas etc. Pakistani team was considered as the most competitive team of hockey, which has won many titles like Champions Trophy, World Cup, but when we look at our present state, we find that we have lost an asset and, sorry to say, that it is our national game.
Similarly, cricket has given birth to countless heroes of our country whose names will always be written with golden letters, for eg Imran Khan, Jawed Miandad, Waseem Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq, etc. They are still the sparkling stars of the nation. In the past cricket was so much popular that all age groups of people were attracted towards it. Most probably because of the conductance of the sports internationally, there was a good sports management and last but not the least we had a factory of brilliant players.
Highlighting on squash, we had two versatile players who were enough for others; they are Jahangir and Jansher Khan. Pakistan had a satisfactory identification in squash but at present there is a severe drought as far as squash in Pakistan is concerned.
There are a number of sports in which Pakistans dominating position has changed adversely and this issue should be tackled seriously by the government to provide norms and aspects to the youngsters for their proper grooming and to hand over the sports ministries to the competent people. Otherwise, there will be a dearth of sports activities and superstars in our country.