One of the founders of Sindh Rowing Club in Pakistan, Muhammad Shahzad claims the sports boards and federations are not helping players excel at the international level.
Talking about rowing as a sport in Pakistan and the functioning of Sindh Rowing Club, Mr Shahzad says that in the past there used to be two to three international trips annually organised by the club for rowers which boosted the image of rowing as a sport across the country.
“I was one of the pioneers of rowing in Sindh and literally placed bricks to build the Sindh Rowing club of Pakistan office.
My personal success in rowing is also based on what we achieved during that time.
Pakistan used to produce new talent that won medals at international forums.
One of the rowing talents achieved success even at Asian level.”
Mr Shahzad claims that the sports board or the Olympic association is not doing enough to help develop the sports in the country and accused the institutes of nepotism and corruption.
Source: Muhammad shahzad
“They are not providing spaces to players to participate in the international tournaments.
“It is a very sad story. I have come to Australia to participate in the games only through my own efforts.”
SBS Urdu spoke to both authorities regarding allegations of Mr Shahzad.
Pakistan Sports Board’s response to allegations
Deputy Director, Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Azam Dar denies the allegations.
“It is great to hear about players winning medals for the country. But PSB only deals with affiliated federations and not everyone [players].
“PSB is a government organisation. Everything happens according to the rules and regulations. The board cannot make the players participate in an international event."
Mr Dar said there are currently 39 sports federations in the country that are affiliated with the board.
"If there a mega event such as South Asian, Asian or Commonwealth game, the Pakistan Olympic Association is responsible for the officials and player’s accreditation and making the recommendation to the government to do a camp for training.
"Then we bear the participation expenses of the squad.”
On the question of why no one officially participated in Pan Pacific Masters games from Pakistan, Mr Dar said it is the duty of the federations to tell PSB.
“It is the federation’s baby. They are supposed to inform us about such events. PSB cannot directly take part in any event and send players.
Pakistan Olympic Association’s response to allegations
SBS Urdu talked to the secretary general, Pakistan Olympic Association, Khalid Mehmood about the allegations.
According to Mr Mehmood every player who wants to criticise the association uses these allegations.
“In Pakistan, there is a minimal role of POA and PSB to select players for the tournaments.
The selections are done by the sports federations.
Now the players you are mentioning, we have never been in contact with them.
Each federation gets around 2 million Pakistan Rupees (Australian $20,000) only. So we must understand how difficult it is for federations to work in such conditions.
Some even work on a voluntary basis.”
The rowing bronze medalist hopes the new prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan might be able to bring change.
“He has been a sportsman all his life so I expect that he can make changes and improve the current condition of the sports industry.”
All the comments were translated from interviews in Urdu language.
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