Former Pakistan Sports Goods Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PSGMEA) chairperson Safdar Sandal told reporters that at this early phase, over 10 soccer balls manufacturing units had started the production and manufacturing of mechanized footballs in Sialkot, adding that the trend of mechanized football production was spreading. A leading soccer balls exporter Muhammad Iqbal Sandal, who has recently established his own mechanized football manufacturing unit in Sialkot, said that several Chinese sporting goods companies were expressing keen interest in importing mechanized footballs from Sialkot. “China has a huge market of machine made balls and now other exporters said have also expressed interest in mechanized footballs’ produced in Sialkot,” he said.
Sandal said that the thermo-bonded variety of footballs posed a major threat and companies needed to plan accordingly. “Local manufactures have created a trust, the `Sport Industry Development Trust’ (SIDT) with one hundred units pooling Rs 100,000 each to raise the seed amount at Rs10m.
The venture is being coordinated by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and aims at upgrading the Sialkot industry,” he said. Sandal told that the demand of hand made soccer balls still exists despite the introduction of mechanized balls because these had failed in producing sustainable results during the Football World Cup. Sandal said that hand-stitched soccer balls remained on target whereas the machine made ones failed in maintaining direction during matches, adding that the previous World Football Cup ratio of field goals remained at the lowest ebb. In order to cope with the threats of machined made soccer balls, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (SMEDA) had finalized arrangements for setting up a Sports Industry Development Centre in Sialkot for the modernisation of the sports goods industry especially the soccer ball manufacturing sector enabling it cope with the new challenges of global market.
He revealed that three SMEDA projects were also in the pipelines and were in different stages of planning and execution.
The ‘Product Development Centre’ (PDC) has run into several bureaucratic hurdles. “Once the required funds for the project are released and the PDC is functional, it will not only facilitate the Soccer Ball Industry enabling it to cope with the emerging technology but it will also provide a foothold for preparing composite materials like graphite for producing badminton, tennis rackets and hockey sticks. The PDC will be the country’s first effort to take sports goods exports to a new level.”
The PSGMEA chairman said that under the current global scenario and fast growing global industrialization, the small and medium industries sector had not been able to realize its potential. “Exclusive handwork and manual caliber is not going to meet the challenges of mechanization. Sole dependence on human craft is no longer enough. Lack of automation and scanty use of advanced technologies is dangerous for the industry,” he said.
He said that the advancement in technology could help forestall small business’s success and help meet requirements of the ever changing ‘whims’ of the global market.
The government should take appropriate step for extending the facility of “research and development” to the sports goods industry enabling it
to cope with the global market in the presence of modern trends and customs demands, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2010.
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