KARACHI, March 15: The 14th Sindh Games, an annual spectacle of the province, opens at the Municipal Stadium, Sukkur on Thursday amidst fanfare. The three-day games are expected to bring over 2,000 sportspersons and technical officials of five regions — defending champions Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and host Sukkur — together on one platform aimed at fostering the harmony.

Khairpur and Ghotki, which come in the Sukkur region, will also stage some disciplines due to lack of logistics and infrastructure in the host city.

The games are being held under the aegis of Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) in collaboration with the Sindh Sports and Youth Affairs department.

Competitions will be held in 29 disciplines for men and 13 for women apart from four traditional games. Earlier, a huge row had erupted when the SOA dropped a few disciplines without any logical explanation but was later compelled to include all of them one by one following the hue and cry from the respective associations.

The theme of the Games is “love, tolerance and harmony” while its slogan says, “sports promote behaviour, discipline and health”.

Sindh Sports Minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, who also heads SOA, will formally inaugurate the games on behalf of Sindh Governor while Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah will grace the closing ceremony, secretary of Sports and Youth Affairs Shoaib Siddiqui told Dawn on Tuesday.

He disclosed that the chief minister has doled out a sum of Rs10 million for staging the games in a befitting manner.

“Each and every participant connected with the staging of the games has been insured for a month starting March 15; a practice instituted two years back,” said Shoaib.

According to the official, accommodation arrangements for men have been made in schools and colleges while women will reside in hotels and guest houses.

Information gathered by Dawn reveals that the athletes will be paid Rs300 daily whereas the contingent officials are entitled to receive Rs500 daily for five days in the games.

In addition, the SOA has disbursed track suits, T-shirts and caps to respective secretaries of provincial associations which will be distributed among the Sukkur-bound athletes and officials.

Meanwhile, the Karachi contingent comprising some 500 athletes, officials and technical officials leaves for Sukkur by buses on Wednesday at 9.00am.

Similarly, contingents of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Larkana will also leave for Sukkur on Wednesday.

Disciplines: Men: Athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, baseball, body building, chess, kabaddi, karate, moythai, netball, softball, squash, throwball, tug of war and wushu.

Women: Athletics, badminton, basketball, handball, hockey, judo, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, karate, netball and throwball.

Traditional games (men): Kodi kodi, malakhara, shootingball and wanjhahwatti.