Pakistan Cricket Board responsible for Tennis woes, Saeed Hai
Pakistan is best known for its cricket, which is one of the sports that are thriving in the country because it has adequate sponsors in order to provide them with funding to play at an international level.
Many other sports are being neglected in Pakistan and the government is unwilling to promote these sports. Due to this, tennis in Pakistan is suffering. No doubt there is talent in this country but there are not enough facilities and resources for potential players to develop their talent up to an international level.
Tennis heroes are rare in Pakistan. Recently, the Pakistani professional tennis player, Aisam Ul Haq, who is number one in Pakistan, has made a name for Pakistan in the international tennis community by reaching the quarterfinals round at Wimbledon this year. This has been the furthest any Pakistani player has gone in any Grand Slam tournament throughout history.
Voices are now being raised against the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) to take some action against the inability of Pakistan to produce more tennis players who can play at the international level.
Khawaja Saeed Hai is considered to be a legend in the history of Pakistani tennis. He is the former number one tennis player of Pakistan and was the first Pakistani to have ever entered a Grand Slam championship. In the years 1954 to 1956 he participated in three successive Wimbledon Championships and he reached the third round at the French Open. He also participated at the US Open in 1958 and 1964 and Captained Pakistan in the Davis Cup. No other Captain has better results for Pakistan in the country’s Davis Cup history.
Currently, Saeed Hai is a senior vice president of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF). He wants the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take responsibility for making Pakistan a country which is no longer being visited by international sportsmen. The incident of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket players which occurred in the Pakistani city of Lahore in March 2009 has been a major blow for sports in Pakistan. Hai stresses on the fact that it is the failure of the PCB to have arranged for proper security for the Sri Lankan cricketers due to which they were a subject of attack.
According to Hai, the PCB had promised to provide the best possible security to the international cricketers but they failed to do so. It is because of them that sportsmen from abroad no longer want to come and play in Pakistan. Pakistani Cricket is still on the go as it does not face any problem of exposure at an international level because it has the ability to self finance itself. It is other sports like that of tennis which are in terrible shape because foreign teams have refused to come and play in Pakistan which has resulted in a drop in the playing standards of various sports in the country.
Due to the tragedy in Lahore which left several dead and some Sri Lankan cricketers injured, Pakistan has been refused the right to host their tie against New Zealand in the Davis Cup which was to be held this month. The venue was shifted to New Zealand. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) claimed that Pakistan was still under a security threat and they could not risk the safety of the New Zealander players and send them to Pakistan to play.
Saeed Hai says that the PTF has nearly gone bankrupt by sending its players abroad to play and since the Pakistani government is also least concerned to provide them with funds or sponsors they are in a state of great distress. He claims that when international tournaments like the Davis Cup were hosted in their homeland they used to win and also make profits but now this is not the case.
Someone from Pakistan needs to take responsibility for this continuing problem, until that happens, the future of Pakistani Tennis and many other sports looks quite bleak.
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