In a quick move, the Sports Board Punjab (SBP) has made functional two cricket academies, one each in Rawalpindi and Sialkot.

Former Test cricketer Zaheer Abbas has been appointed as in-charge for setting up academies in each district of the province.

Interestingly, cricket is not included in SBP’s chart of activities as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is the authority to establish academies and to patronage cricket clubs throughout the country.

The SBP has the responsibility to pick and groom young boys and girls in other disciplines like swimming, athletics, boxing, badminton, volleyball, football, hockey, karate, judo, kabaddi, baseball and cycling.

But the SBP is not holding the competitions at U-14 and U-16 levels at the inter-district level which is its basic duty.

The Long Beach World Ranking Senior Tennis Tournament, sponsored by Long Beach Tennis Club, New York, US, ended in Lahore this last week.

Its Pakistani origin chief executive, Naeem Siddique, says that lots of efforts are needed to promote tennis in Pakistan. Though the country has talent, lack of resources is the biggest hurdle in the way of players to hone their skills, he says.

Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) secretary Rashid Malik, who is also former Davis Cupper and Pakistan coach, says the PLTA will hold the first Pakistan Open Tennis Championship in Lahore next month.

Mr Malik says though the Pakistan Tennis Federation and the PLTA have offered foreign players free accommodation in Lahore and even free air travel to some top seed players, not a single entry from abroad has so far been received.

The Tanvir Dar Hockey Academy is in full preparation for a tour of Malaysia starting from Nov 19. A training camp under the coaching of former Olympian Danish Kaleem is going on at the National Hockey Stadium.

The Tanvir Dar Academy, which has produced a good number of players for Pakistan senior, junior and under-19 teams, has toured Europe thrice in the past and it will be its fourth foreign tour.

This time the Asian Hockey Federation invited the academy to play matches against some clubs in Malaysia.

This last week, the Pakistan Cheerleaders Federation held the first national school championship for cheerleaders in Lahore. It is a newly-introduced women sports discipline.

But a poor response from the schools, outside of the Lahore, is witnessed. From Lahore, according to organizers, around 30 schools participated, while from Karachi and Peshawar, just one school each had confirmed the entry.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2016