Pakistan had a thriving sports atmosphere back in 70s from what I know, even in 80’s it was pretty good, while the facilities were always in short supply and the infratsructure and organization at league level was bad, we were producing good players in different areas, tennis, boxing, table tennis, track, not world class perhaps but much better than now.
and its more than just watching major sports, participation in sports was much higher, i compare my cousins in pakistan today to the cousins before and it seems like there is no single serious athelete in the family, i mean serious even at club or college level, it just seems not to be a priority or important.
not sure what happened and when, whether it is just the same as we see with the time on internet younger gen simply not into sports as much or whether the law and order situation over the years has made it less desirable and once u are not into it, its harder to get into it as u get older
We had all 4 major field hockey trophies/medals .. World Champion, Olympics, Asian and Champions trophy ..
Jahangir Khan was 7 times world squash champion in a row.
We even had a medal in Snooker, I think Asian championship.
jehangir khan was unstoppable and in the top 10 there were 3 pakistanis, in teh top 20 there were 5, jansher was one, I am forgetting other names, kamran I believe..then a dude who was on decline so was in top 20..it was amazing then.
table tennis you had nakhuda and then arif khan and farjad saif..while arif khan was a real turd of a person he was a good player, and farjad was probably the best allround table tennis player pakistan has ever seen. these gusy won acclaim in major tourneys, asian and world champs and I remember the headlines that pakistan was finally on the map. i believe one of the two arifs had teh highest rankings in table tennis that a pakistani had held even.
and the culture folks, clubs like islamia, national coaching center, caa club, khokhar club were packed with players..last time I went to pak was a decade ago, i walked in national coachign center and felt like crying at the sunsan place
lets not forget Pakistan had a very strong bridge team as well led by Zia and won quite a few world championships. Those were the days. In the 70's Paksitan had more than 5 players in the top 10 in squash. players like Qamar zaman, Mohibullah, Gogi etc.
i used to play table tennis with the shakoor sisters at national coaching center when i was 15, they used to bring me snacks
knew nakhuda well, farjad was like a role model
hated arif khan,
there were some cry babies in Pak team.
when i was 19-20 I played competitively in US and used to be ranked and when i went back over summers I practised with the national team folks and one of these whiners would complain that I had a unconventional style and thats why i was beating him but he was a better player.. nakhuda shut him up that when you play in international competitions u will have to play against players with unconventional styles even crazy things like teh now dead seemiler grip players etc. nakhuda was the coach of the national team those days
X2, do you happen to know Ejaz and Sohail Akhtar (i think his last name was akhtar) .. they were both in NED and were in KPT table tennis team. Both used to go to Sharf-a-baad club for practice .. very good friends of mine they were
In fact Sohail introduced me to Shakoor Sisters, right there in National Coaching Center ...he was good buddy of Nazo
National COaching Center was such a happening place back then ..(in sports, not in hooking up people :D)
just FYI, all 3 were national table tennis champion .. Rubina got married to Table Tennis champion Arif Nakhuda, Seema was married to hockey star Kaleem-ullah and Nazo I think got married to Javed Miandad’s brother, but later I heard she got divorced …
X2, do you happen to know Ejaz and Sohail Akhtar (i think his last name was akhtar) .. they were both in NED and were in KPT table tennis team. Both used to go to Sharf-a-baad club for practice .. very good friends of mine they were
In fact Sohail introduced me to Shakoor Sisters, right there in National Coaching Center ...he was good buddy of Nazo
National COaching Center was such a happening place back then ..(in sports, not in hooking up people :D)
errrr NCC was a good place for hooking up too :) ab niksik kay samnay shareef na bano
i never played in sharfabad so dont know. it was a sausagefest there anyways, no place for a dil phaink awara teenager to hang out at unless he was into men.
plus it has been ages aside from azkhar shaikh and atta abbass I dont remember any names even of people from my club now. I played mostly at the CAA club, and later national club.
. You’re off topic.
