Enthusiasts forced to pay for private sports grounds

Shortage of sports grounds in the provincial capital has resulted in a trend of renting premises within boundary walls for sports events.

As the pace of development of sports fields by the government is slow, the sports grounds in different areas are offered for Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 on working days and up to Rs20,000 on weekends.

It has become difficult of local sports clubs to access the grounds due to the commercial use. Mostly enthusiasts from the corporate sector book the grounds for their activities.

A solution to the lack of grounds has been offered in the form of sports centres within boundary walls in the city, where a match or practice can be organised by paying Rs1,000 to Rs2,000 per hour on working days.

The grounds of two to three kanal have the facility of hosting hard or softball cricket, futsal and tennis.

Players also organise matches by contributing money.

The citizens who cannot afford to do so have covered roofs of dozens of buildings across the city with nets to play under floodlights.

In addition, there has been no reduction in the number of youths playing cricket at night in the streets and on the roads.

The trend has increased significantly since the government announced the early closure of shops.

On the one hand, many players get free from work early and on the other the reduced traffic makes it easier to play in the streets. The West Zone of Lahore Cricket Association has the most playgrounds, including the Model Town Club, Model Town Green, Pindi Gymkhana Cricket Centre, Aligarh Club, Shah Faisal Club, Model Town Whites, New Ittefaq, Township Whites, Township Green, Ideal Club and Wahdat Eaglets.

On the other hand, there are only the Mughalpura Institute, Carson and Jalo Pind grounds in the East Zone. The Railway Stadium at Garhi Shahu is not available for ordinary clubs.

A couple of groups have been in power in the association for over two decades but have not paid attention to providing new playgrounds to the citizens.

Private academies get grounds on lease and use them on commercial basis, while registered cricket clubs and other sports for the affiliated players, there are hardly any opportunities on the government grounds. For example, at least six cricket and one football club practice nets in Griffin Ground alone. Clubs take turns here for matches, or campaign to collect money first, and on completion of the mission, a plan is made for the match on the rented ground.

The history of the arenas for domestic wrestling was also erased which provided many star players to the national team.

Similarly, in many areas, commercial and residential projects have eaten green playgrounds along with trees. On the other hand, government projects for sports, which are considered as alternatives, have been slow. The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has started more than 10 projects. Only 70% and 80% of the work could be completed on some of them.

The 1174-kanal Nishtar Park under the Punjab Sports Board is the largest centre of sports facilities in the city.

The Punjab Sports Board has worked to improve the condition of around 300 small and large venues in the province by clearing many fields from occupying groups. At least the players got a slightly better environment in the open fields, but this effort seems insufficient at present.

A cricket organizer, Muhammad Sarwar, said that Pakistan is lucky that many cricketers who started the game from the streets managed to make it to the national teams. Just think of how much talent would emerge if there were proper facilities. Most of the private schools don’t have their own grounds.

Saeed Khan, a footballer, said that few clubs that had their own fields were beyond the reach of the common players. He said that you could judge the infrastructure from this. Lahore was such a big city, but there was no football stadium here, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2023.