Depleted Pakistan make up the numbers in Rio

August 2, 2016

Karachi, Aug 2: When 206 nations march past during the Rio Olympics opening ceremony, a mere seven-athlete team will represent Pakistan -- one fewer than the contingent sent by tiny Atlantic island Bermuda.

rio

Despite producing world-class cricketers, hockey players and squash champions in 68 years since independence, Pakistan's Olympic medal tally is an imperfect 10 -- eight in field hockey and only two individual.

The Olympics in Brazil mark the lowest ebb for Pakistan as they failed to qualify in field hockey for the first time since their maiden appearance in 1948 London Games.

Three athletes -- shooters Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Minhal Sohail, and judoka Shah Hussain, qualified by right on the "continental quota" after racking up reasonable records in various international competitions.

There are also four wild cards which are given to all the member countries by the International Olympic Association. They have been taken up by swimmers Liana Swan and Harris Banday, and athletes Mehboob Ali and Najma Parveen.

It is a far cry from the sporting glory the country once enjoyed. As recently as 1994, Pakistan held world titles in field hockey, amateur snooker, squash and cricket. But only hockey is an Olympic sport.

Pakistan's various sports federations are not awash with cash, but neither are they starved of funds to an extent that could explain the country's abysmal performances.

Punjab, the country's most populous province, allocated $50 million in its sports budget for 2016-17, while Khyber Pakthunkhwa, historically home to many of Pakistan's best athletes, set aside $17 million.

Funds are awarded haphazardly, with patronage-based hiring and inflated wages of officials swallowing significant chunks and leaving individual sports federations baffled and angry.

"Funds not reaching deserving athletes and to the sport which has the potential of winning a medal is the most unfortunate thing," said Ehsan Qureshi, a seasoned sports journalist.

Iqbal Hussain, head of the country's boxing federation, says his organisation was awarded a mere $3,000 for the qualifiers, down from $300,000 in 2012.

Commonwealth games boxing silver medallist Mohammad Waseem decided to turn professional after seeing no future in the amateur games.

"We need to invest a lot of money if we want to win a medal in Olympics," said Mohammad Inam, a gold medal winner at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. "You can't win on mere training, you need to compete in various competitions and through that your standard is raised."

The biggest slump has come in hockey -- where Pakistan can boast three golds in 1960, 1968 and 1984, but their last medal was a bronze at Barcelona in 1992.

They finished a poor eighth in 2008 and seventh four years later. The malaise worsened as Pakistan failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2014 and then missed out on qualifying for Rio.

"It's a big setback that our field hockey team will be missing for the first time," said Pakistan Olympic Association president Arif Hassan.

"It hurts because Pakistan hockey was such a strong team that it was our identity," added Hanif Khan, a member of last gold medal winning team in 1984.

"Today Pakistan team is out of the Olympics, we have won three Olympics and four world titles... that's disappointing and we are to blame ourselves for this."

But there remains a glimmer of hope. Pakistan's best chance of a medal is Shah Hussain Shah, a judoka who won Silver at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and whose father Hussain Shah won Bronze as a boxer in the Seoul Games in 1988.

"I have trained hard in Japan and it's my aim to emulate my father's win," said Shah, who lives and trains in Tokyo.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: On the first day of the New Year 2020, Hardik Pandya announced his engagement with Serbian actor Natasa Stankovic.

The cricketer took to Instagram to share a photo with the actor and captioned the post: "Mai tera, Tu meri jaane, saara Hindustan. 01.01.2020 #engaged".

The 26-year-old shared three pictures and a short clip on the social media platform. In one photo, Stankovic can be seen flaunting her ring.

The couple got engaged in Dubai and were seen taking a ferry ride along with close friends.

On work front, Stankovic was last seen in a song from Bollywood movie The Body starring Emraan Hashmi and Rishi Kapoor. She had also made it to the finals of the TV show Nach Baliye with her ex-boyfriend Aly Goni.

Stankovic first became a household name after appearing as a contestant on famous reality show 'Bigg Boss 8'.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mar 4: The BCCI has decided to implement strict cost cutting measures with the notable decision being IPL 2020 champions' prize money will be halved as compared to 2019. In a circular sent to all IPL franchises, the BCCI has notified that instead of a whopping Rs 20 crore, the IPL champion team will now receive Rs 10 crore only. "The financial rewards have been reworked as a part of the cost cutting measures. The champions will get Rs 10 crore instead of Rs 20 crore. The runners-up will get Rs 6.25 crore from earlier Rs 12.5 crore," a BCCI notification, in possession of news agency, read.

The two losing qualifiers will now get Rs 4.375 crore each.

"The franchises are all in good health. They also have multiple ways like sponsorships to bolster their income. Hence the decision on prize money taken," a senior BCCI source said.

However, a state association hosting IPL games will get Rs 1 crore each with franchises and BCCI contributing Rs 50 lakh each.

It has also been learnt that mid-level BCCI employees won't be allowed to avail business class flights like earlier times for flying to the Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE) where the flying time is less than eight hours.

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March 13,2020

Mar 13: The start of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world's most lucrative cricket competition, has been postponed from March 29 until April 15 over the coronavirus, the Indian cricket board said Friday.

"The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to suspend IPL 2020 till 15th April 2020, as a precautionary measure against the ongoing Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation," the BCCI said in a statement.

The two-month Twenty20 competition is estimated to generate more than $11 billion for the Indian economy and involves cricket's top international stars.

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