Jawad Hussain
Karachi: In a country, where all the international teams, irrespective of what sport they play, refused to tour in the backdrop of terrorists' activities leaving sporting activities in the country to a standstill, Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) pulled up their socks to organise a competition that lured attention of most of the major boxing teams from across the world.
All the credit goes only to PBF for successfully organising first-ever Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament (SBBIT), where teams from 24 countries tested their boxing talent. Although, Pakistani boxers failed to come up to the international standards and only one pugilist could grab a Gold Medal, but good thing was that at last Pakistani boxers got some sort of competition of international level.
After a fearful Year 2009, during which a group of terrorists attacked Sri Lankan cricket team while going to Gaddafi Stadium for playing a test match against Pakistan on March 3, 2009. Following the act of terror, Sri Lankan team departed without completing the whole tour, while the worst fallout of the attack was that all the countries stopped their teams from touring Pakistan, which put a huge question mark on future of sports activities in a country, which was in dire need of a sporting way out for the frustrated youth. The year then saw some of the most bloody acts of terror, resulting in a full-fledged army operation in the northern areas of the country.
But SBBIBT came to the scene as a puff of fresh air as the Year 2010 started with a renewed resolve to fight terror through sports as Pakistan Boxing Federation invited world to join hands with Pakistan to reignite international sports activities in Pakistan. One must thank the governments and their boards for sending their teams to Pakistan at a time when terrorists had hit the country's financial hub with quite some force on Ashura day, just a week earlier before the start of the SBBIBT.
PBF has received tremendous praise from all of the major sports organizations of the country, besides glowing words by the foreign media and sports bodies.
A couple of days ago, Federal Sports Ministry, Pakistan Sports Board, Pakistan Olympic Association and other sports organisations gave PBF pat on the back for successfully holding the historical boxing event.
Federal Sports Minister Mir Ijaz Hussain Jakhrani during his telephonic conversation with President PBF, Doda Khan Bhutto said the tournament helped in building a soft image of Pakistan in the world as a safe country for top sports events.
"It is a historic event which will be ever remembered in history of sports and PBF deserve praise for this successful show", said the minister.
Federal Minister for Inter Provisional Coordination, Pir Syed Aftab Shah Jilani -who was previously taking care of Sports Ministry, said the participation of 23 countries in Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament was a huge achievement for the country in terms of restoring image suitable for staging international sports events.
President of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Arif Hassan; Secretary, Abdul Khaliq Khan; Vice President POA, Justice (Retd) Khawaja Farooq Saeed; Director General of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), Syed Ameer Hamza Gilani; and Secretary Sindh Olympic Association, Ahmed Ali Rajput said the successful holding of the event has revved up chances that similar international events will also be held in other disciplines in Pakistan.
President of Balochistan Boxing and VP of PBF Faqir Hussain, Secretary Haji Khuday Raheem, Joint Secretary Liaquat Ali Durrani, Olympian Boxer Asghar Changaizi, also forwarded their congratulations to Vice President PBF, Iqbal Hussain and Secretary Mohammad Akram Khan for staging the event in a trend setting manner.
Let's get back to the performances of the teams which took part in the first sporting event of New Year in Pakistan. China swept the medals tally with 4 gold medals, a silver medal and 2 bronze medals. Syria stood second with 2 gold and silver medals each, while Thailand followed with 2 gold medals. Pakistani pugilists had a great presence in the semi-final stage with 12 boxers fought bouts for the Gold Medal, but only one boxer could maintain his composure as Pakistan stood fourth with only 1 gold medal, a silver and 6 bronze medals.
Mohib Bacha was the gold medallist of the tournament for the hosts. The result shows that Pakistani boxers have to do a lot to make their impact felt in the international arena but regular of holding of such events would definitely uplift the game of boxing.
Keeping in view the facilities and exposure that Pakistani boxers get, this performance is quite satisfactory, but there is a need to mould this raw talent into the real tough cookies at international arena.
During the tournament, PBF also invited the only Pakistani Olympic Medalist in boxing, Hussain Shah from Japan, who appreciated PBF efforts for holding this event. Hussain won bronze medal in 1988 Seoul Olympics. Syed Hussain Shah has also to his credit five gold medals in the South Asian Games history, remained the best boxer of Asia from 1980 to 1988, a rare prominence achieved by any Pakistani pugilist so far.
Later, legendary boxing maestro Amir Khan, the UK-based light welter weight world champion, increased the glamour of the tournament by arriving here with his family to attend the closing ceremony of the tournament.
Amir Khan told media, "There is a huge talent in Pakistan and I foresee boxing becoming a big sports here too under people like Doda Khan and Akram Khan". He also offered Pakistani boxers to get training in his academy based in the UK.
Moreover, nine African boxers revert to Islam during the tournament after getting inspired by the Muslims here.
PBF President Doda Khan Bhutto informed media, "We organised this tournament only through our determinations and we had all the odds against us. However, we succeeded in holding the international tournament and hopefully in future it would be comparatively easier to hold such a tournament".
"We are working for another international tournament in July after the success of this tournament. We have to start from scratch to hold an international event after the unfortunate and unpopular incident of deadly attack on Sri Lankan cricket team here in Pakistan last year.
"Nobody was ready to come here and everybody here also doubted the holding of such an event. Many high-ups in government offices even ridiculed us. But by the grace of Allah we were successful in holding the tournament," PBF secretary Akram Khan said.
"It was a big event but unfortunately the people in the government failed to create hype of the tournament. They should have visited the tournament much often so that it could have gained more publicity," he added.
He further said that the sponsors were reluctant to indulge with us because of lack of support from the government. "They also doubted that such an event could be held and therefore didn't come forward to sponsor us," Akram said.
He further said that the same thing would not happen next time hopefully and they would be able to bring sponsors in for the tournament in July.
He said that international tournaments at home are very important for uplifting boxing in the country. "When the youth here see boxers playing and achieving glorious victories, they create a charm for the game in them. Moreover, more boxers could be featured in the events at home as we did during SBBIBT. They get exposure against international pugilists. If we had featured these 22 boxers in an international tournament somewhere else then they couldn't have achieved anything.
He said that tournaments like SBBIBT should regularly be held at least twice a year for uplifting the level of local boxers and boxing as a whole in the country. ''The boxers' achievement in the tournament was good but not excellent. We had at least won three gold medals. We still have to go a long way.''
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