Better economy, more Olympic gold

[GoldenAsif]

Re: Better economy, more Olympic gold

I absolutely do not agree with this.

Is the writer related to Nadeem Paracha?

@Mostar95

Better economy, more Olympic gold
Shaan Agha | 16th August, 2012The contingent was led by the only surviving hockey legend of Pakistan, record holding goal-scorer Sohail Abbas. He was previously called out of retirement and recently made captain due to lack of options. Not surprisingly, the biggest factor contributing to the decline of hockey has been the financial decline in the sport.
Abbas was born two years before the military coup that over threw Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s elected government in 1975. General Zia-ul-Haq forcefully took power and by some accounts Pakistan was never the same again.
Zia reinvented Pakistan into a staunch Islamic state parable to the Christian state of Theodosius-I. The effects of religious fanaticism might not immediately be evident but are uncovered over time and in today’s day and age a lot faster than it did a few thousand years ago.

While Zia maybe the cause of many things that are not right with today’s Pakistani society, it is also true that his tenure (1977-1988), coincided with Pakistan’s most successful era in sports. We were simultaneously the world champions in hockey and squash, no 2 in Badminton (Tariq Wadood), Bridge and Cricket (after Windies) and even for a brief period in 1988 under Imran Khan’s captaincy (after the drawn 1-1 series in the Caribbean in 1988) the no.1 ranked team in test cricket. Zia was a keen cricket fan and one of the staunchest supporters of Imran Khan (covered all his health expenses while he was recovering from a stress fracture of the ankle) and Javed Miandad

Whether Zia gets credit for our sporting excellence in the 80s is debatable though