Moalims

KARACHI: It was a refreshing experience listening to four sports heroes from varied sports backgrounds during a panel discussion at School of Tomorrow’s International Education and Cultural Festival, ‘The End of Education’, organised by Beaconhouse School Systems at the Beach Luxury Hotel here on Sunday.

Dawn’s Sports Editor Rishad Mahmood, the moderator, put the question whether sports can be taken up as a career to Pakistan national women’s cricket team captain Sana Mir, Tennis ace Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, former cricketer Shaoib Mohammad and the women’s nation football team captain Hajra Khan.

Sana Mir said that she was a keen follower of cricket since her childhood. “I used to watch Wasim Akram and think why we didn’t have women cricketing heroes. Then I thought that maybe I should come into this field myself instead of waiting for others to do it,” she shared.

“I was also interested in pursuing a career in engineering and got admission at NUST, too. But managing cricket practices and camps with higher education was difficult so I gave up my engineering dream only to find that I was not even selected in the team. That was a major setback for me but then my father said to me that the country had lots of female engineers but not enough female cricketers.

“The encouragement helped me not to give up on cricket. I want other girls to take up sports even if their parents are not as supportive as mine,” she added saying that she was trying to develop women’s academies wherever there are women’s schools and colleges with big enough grounds.

“Recently, Kinnaird College took the initiative of awarding sports scholarships to 25 students and I want it at other educational institutions as well,” she said.

“Football is a physically challenging sport. Women are seen as weak and people after finding out that you play football ask you questions such as ‘have you ever been injured?’ But you learn to handle such mindsets with grace and humility,” said Hajra Khan, captain of the women’s football team that ranks 121 in the world in caparison to our men’s football team that is 181 in word rankings.

She also said that she was also studying business management. “Juggling football and education is hard but I also have to plan for when I retire.” She also said that she wanted to coach the physically-challenged kids and had also done an AFC ‘C’ coaching course for the purpose.

Hailing from a family of tennis players, Aisam said that taking up the sport he wanted to make his family proud while also making his country proud. “I am the second Pakistani to have qualified for Wimbledon and have also beaten Roger Federer only to realise that not many in my country knew about my feat. But my parents have encouraged me every step of the way,” he said.

“When I was 13, I lost my first major match without scoring a single point and cried my heart out. But I also learnt from the experience,” he added.

“A sportsman competing at the international level also means that you are an ambassador for Pakistan. As a human being it is important to help others less fortunate than you and spread the message of peace.

“Sports unites all cultures and religions so I have this organization called ‘Stop War Start Tennis’ that distributes tennis equipment among those who want to play but cannot afford it in countries like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Myanmar,” he added saying that he also intended to involve ex-soldiers of Pakistan army, who have lost their limbs in combat, in tennis.

Former cricketer Shoaib Mohammad also said that he inherited cricket and has felt the pressure of living up to expectations but his school, Habib Public, was more famous for producing hockey players. “I played hockey, too,” he said.

“But since my main focus was cricket I introduced the game at my school with the help of my father Hanif Mohammad and in one or two years Habib Public won the inter-school cricket championship,” he said.

He also said that he was distressed to find former players struggling in life. “These players had once made a name for their country when the monetary benefits we see in cricket today were not heard of. It is the government’s duty to help them now,” he said.

Finally, all four thought that sports at the domestic level needed to be uplifted after the attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009 in order to motivate more children to take up sports.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2015