A prize distribution ceremony for hockey players was organised by the National Bank of Pakistan in Lahore last week.

The national sport of the country is in a dying state as the government, which has the prime duty to improve the game, has not shown any serious effort towards hockey.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), headed by Akhtar Rasool Chaudhry, has yet to announce any concrete policy for the revival of the game, as he is waiting for a grant from the federal government.

Under these circumstances, the decision of National Bank of Pakistan to honour its junior team for winning the last National Hockey Championship in Karachi was like a breeze in the hockey circles. A cash prize of Rs1.15 million was equally distributed among 20 players and three officials.

Former Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim, who is head of the bank’s sports department, took the initiative.

A good number of hockey Olympians, National Hockey Academy head Tahir Zaman, PHF associate secretary Anjum Saeed, national selector Arshad Chaudhry, Former PHF secretary retired Brigadier Mussaratullah Khan, Danish Kaleem, Ikhlaq Ahmad and former captain Zeeshan Ashraf attended the function.

One hopes the sports departments of Wapda, Army, Railways, Habib Bank, Navy, PAF and others would also arrange such functions to boost the morale of the sports community.

M Mudassar, a member of the winning team, belongs to Lahore. He told Dawn he was not expecting such a kind of respect from their department.

“This kind of respect inspired me to do more hard work for more achievements,” he said.

Iqbal Qasim said that other financial institutions and corporate sectors should also come forward and hold sports related activities.

The Sports Board of Punjab (SBP) has decided to fix a monthly stipend for its sportspersons, who won gold and silver medals at some competitions held by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) this year. Three years ago, the SBP had suspended awarding stipends to the players for the reasons never explained publicly. This year, the competitions were held in different games like athletics, boxing, volleyball, swimming and table tennis in different cities of the country where players from four the provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Fata.

According to the announcement, every gold medalist will get a Rs4,000 monthly stipend and a silver medalist Rs3,000. Sports circles suggest the Punjab authorities also announce academy training for these medal holders to hone their skills. After four to six years training under best coaches, the talent could be groomed to earn laurels at the international level. If the Punjab government spends even the the half amount which it has spent on its lavish youth festivals, on the training of the players in academies, it will earn more honour and respect throughout the world.

After a long period, an international rugby event was organised in Lahore. India, Lebanon and Uzbekistan were among the participants. Lebanon won the title, as both Pakistan and India failed to show any notable performance.

Due to security concerns, the event was shifted from the Punjab Stadium to the Defense Stadium.

The shifting of the venue at the eleventh hour is not good for the repute of the administration as it might have given a wrong impression to the visitors.

The Punjab government should prepare a comprehensive security policy for local and international events.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2014