KARACHI: Lack of coordination with Punjab Olympic Association has deprived Punjab’s tennis team of representation at the National Games.
It has been learnt that Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) could not send its team to the National Games due to mismanagement and lack of coordination of its coach/manager with POA.
“I came to know that the coach of Punjab’s tennis team could not come to receive kits and other equipment and he did not coordinate with provincial sports authorities,” said a member of National Games’ Organizing Committee while talking to ‘The News’.
Meanwhile, this mishap has attracted criticism from local tennis fraternity on social media platforms. “According to PLTA, our team official was Ilyas, a coach. He didn’t respond to any notifications from Punjab Olympics on purpose,” said Ali Qayum.
He added that Ilyas was supposed to receive the team’s kits and provide the documents but apparently he wasn’t willing to go so he kept dodging the team as well as POA. “And a day before departure we were informed that our team has been dropped because of poor co-ordination between PLTA and Sports Board. But now no one’s ready to take the responsibility because of which players were effected,” said Ali.
He further revealed that one player came from Multan after taking a leave from his job and one came from Bahawalpur but the official cared only about himself. “The provincial Sports Board and Punjab Olympics have said that in future they are going to break any ties with PLTA because of negligence which is again only going to affect the players,” said Ali.
Another player said that they were informed one day before the departure that POA excluded the provincial tennis team from the National Games and Executive Secretary POA Idrees Haider Khwaja did not listen to any requests from the team’s coach and nobody helped the players.
Labika Durab said that Ilyas was just a small time coach so there must be seniors responsible for the lapse but we should hope for better coordination next time. Interestingly Senior Executive Vice President of PLTA Rashid Malik was away for participation in an international event during this time of need for players.
“This absence of Punjab’s tennis team in the National Games appear quite ironic as Rashid recently celebrated receiving the ‘Best Performance Award for 2024’ for PLTA from PTF,” said a local coach while talking to ‘The News’.
The coach added that the ‘relentless efforts and visionary leadership’ of Rashid Malik could not help the provincial team when the need arises and his promise to ‘work even harder in 2025’ proved futile. PLTA were not available for comments.
