ISLAMABAD (`) – On the outskirts of Islamabad, burly men jostle in a scrum at a rugby field that has seen better days. The sign with the club’s name is worn. Given the high electricity prices and the meager $135 the club earns each month in membership fees, the floodlights are too expensive.
Coach Mohammed Zahir Uddin watched the players and said ruefully: “There is only one game in Pakistan.”
That would be cricket, the country’s most popular sport, a juggernaut when it comes to sponsorship, broadcasting rights and public excitement.
Cricket has completely eclipsed other sports, even those in which Pakistan excelled. Field hockey, Pakistan’s national sport, once propelled the country to Olympic gold and world fame, but its popularity and participation has waned. Pakistan dominated the squash world for decades only to become a shadow of its former self.
The prospects are even bleaker for a sport like rugby, which sees no heyday or heroes in Pakistan.
“There is no support from the organizations that there should be in terms of funding and spreading the word,” said Pakistan national rugby team captain Hammad Safdar. “The majority of sports have the same problem. Therefore, in the later stages, when there is a test, we lack performance because there is no basis.”
Pakistan is hosting the South Asian Games next year, the country’s biggest sports tournament in 20 years. When it was last held, it won 143 medals, including 38 gold medals. But years of neglecting the sport could have an impact on the medal tally this time.
Supporters of sports in the shadow of cricket say they don’t have the environment to succeed or win top prizes due to a lack of investment and interest. Even the ever-popular football has its problems in Pakistan. Power struggles and government interference have led to suspensions at global body FIFA, hampering its growth domestically and opportunities abroad.
Pakistan, with a population of 220 million, has a national government sports budget of around US$15.3 million, far less than others in the region. The Pakistan Sports Board, which oversees all of the country’s sports and their federations, did not respond to requests for interviews.
Rugby does not receive government money but receives a grant from the global rugby organization. If it needs more, it asks the Chairman or President of Pakistan Rugby Union to donate from their own pockets.
The national rugby field in the eastern city of Lahore is on army land. There are no changing rooms. It has no seating, so the organizers rent chairs for tournaments. Rugby development coach Shakeel Malik concedes that it is difficult to generate funds without results, but it is difficult to generate results without funding.
Cricket, which receives no government funding, has a budget of around $66 million. It shot into the stratosphere with a 1992 World Cup win by a national team captained by Imran Khan, who later went into politics, serving as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
Pakistan has never dominated cricket as squash and hockey once did; It only has two World Cups to its name and the national team is notoriously unpredictable. But it’s big business, with an infrastructure to nurture talent, a thirst for empire-building, rampant commerce and a steady supply of national and international games for TV. It is so ingrained in Pakistani life that the Prime Minister approves the appointment of the Chair of the Cricket Board.
His rise in the 1990s coincided with the beginning of the end for hockey and squash.
Pakistan was the superpower of squash for decades, winning the British Open for 17 consecutive years until 1963. One family in particular, the Khans, ruled the sport. The last of the dynasty – Jahangir Khan, a former world No. 1 racquet swinger – went hundreds of games unbeaten. He won the British Open 10 years in a row until his final victory in 1991.
Khan told The Associated Press that even he doesn’t understand how the family amassed so many trophies without facilities and investment. “Even today, the name of Pakistan comes first in squash, as does the name of that family,” he said in an address at the Karachi squash complex that bears his name.
The decline hurts him. Pakistan is now 65th in the men’s squash world rankings. Khan said the sport has failed to build on his family’s legacy.
He argues that mismanagement has undermined the sport and that players need to perform better to attract sponsors. “When people have set standards, it’s up to you to make the most of them and build on them. Funding is not a solution. You made a world champion when you had nothing.”
And there’s also the stranglehold of cricket. “It’s not necessary for all talent to play one thing,” he said.
Tens of thousands came to the games in the heyday of field hockey, said Samiullah Khan, a player who helped Pakistan win a slew of medals in the sport at the Olympics, World Cup and Asian Games up until the 1990s.
“It hurts my heart” to see the current state of hockey, he said. He said Pakistan’s teams have not adapted to changes such as artificial turf and rule changes in Europe, which he believes have made the sport a “jack of all trades”.
“Hockey became like any other sport, like rugby. The strength has remained, the ability has remained,” he said.
But there is hope and a love that lingers for hockey. In a Karachi suburb, about a dozen young women compete in training on a Karachi Hockey Association team.
Kashmala Batool, 30, has been playing hockey for almost half her life. “This is our national game,” she said. “While it receives no endorsement or government funding, the joy we get from playing our national game is not found in any other.”
Shazma Naseem, the goaltender, started in college and has been playing nationally for five years. She still sees her parents’ enthusiasm for the sport and feels a responsibility to keep it going.
“It’s absolutely our job to have played hockey so well, to have made a name for it, so that future generations will know about hockey, that it’s a game too.”
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