SPORTS have become a lucrative business for the organisers these days. With the rate of inflation now considerably higher than before, a number of people have diverted their energies towards using sports for making the ends meet. Of course, there are exceptions too, but by and large unfair practices are being adopted by the organisers to make some extra money through sports events.

Grants, foreign and domestic tours, TA/DA and kickbacks in purchases are some of the areas being exploited by the organizers for making good money out of sports.

Take the example of tennis for instance. Of late, a number of people have surfaced in the city allegedly claiming to serve the game. They lure the sponsors for media coverage — both electronic and print — and get a share from their kitty. The newsmen, including those working in some of the channels, turn up at any such event in large number which eventually serves the sponsors’ purpose who get enough mileage out of it despite the meagre investment made towards its organisation.

After failing to run their business independently, these so-called tennis lovers have now joined hands with the Sindh Tennis Association (STA) whose office-bearers have been around for decades.

If one goes by the facts and figures, the incumbent STA officials have become redundant as their four-year electoral term ended on Dec 26, 2011. It is pertinent to mention that the last elections of STA were held at Karachi Gymkhana on Dec 27, 2007 — the day Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi.

A huge 26-member house was elected which among others included faces who have not been seen since. Mohammadmian Soomro, who was not present, and Khalid Rehmani were re-elected president and secretary respectively for the second successive time.

Clause 23b of the PTF constitution says: “All the office-bearers shall hold office for four years or till the holding of fresh elections unless they resign, die, or their seats stand vacated under the constitution.”Clause 23c says: “The office-bearers shall be eligible for re-election and only maximum of two tenures.”

One fails to understand the reasons of delay in holding the STA polls as over a year has already been passed to set the house in order.

The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) is supporting the two-term sports policy but at the same time its affiliated unit — STA — violated the parent body when its players competed in the 32nd National Games tennis event at Lahore in recently. Surprisingly, no action was taken against them.

According to some insiders, Khwaja Saeed Hai, who was elected vice-president of STA in 2007, is flexing his muscles to take over as the STA chief. Hai is already holding the post of president of Pakistan Seniors Tennis Association (PSTA), and International Club (IC) — the other two affiliated units of the PTF in Sindh — which in itself is a violation.

Sindh has three votes in the PTF Electoral College and they bargain at the time of quadrennial election. In the last polls, the group had supported the outgoing president and a former Senator Syed Dilawar Abbas.

The STA, which claims to be the most active unit of the PTF, orgnised no less than eleven Sindh ranking events during the last calendar year. But the question is, did they serve the purpose?

It is very unfortunate that the players who sweat on court under scorching sun gets a meagre purse in prizemoney or a cheaply designed shield costing just Rs100 or Rs200 for their success while a huge amount of money is being used by the organisers for their own benefit.

The lack of any check or balance on the sports bodies is the main cause of deterioration in the standards. However, it is unfortunate that no measures are being taken to check or stop these malpractices that continue to bring a bad name to sports in the country.

Anwar Zuberi