Pakistan primed for World Cup participation

Team to take part in Tenpin bowling event despite lack of funds from PSB.

KARACHI: Despite the lack of support from the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), the national Tenpin bowling squad will compete at the 49th Qubica AMF World Cup 2013.

The three-member team will leave for Russia on November 12 and begin its campaign in Kransnoyarsk two days later.

The team includes Ijazur Rehman, Khwaja Ahmed Mustaqeem and manager Ayaz Akbar. The players also received training from American coach Allan Smith in Islamabad.

The World Cup is featuring participants from 120 countries and Rehman believes that Pakistan can finish among the top contenders this year.

“We are all set to compete among the best players of the world,” Rehman told The Express Tribune. “We are practising every day for three hours and hopefully our hard work will pay off.

“But the real challenge for us was that we don’t have any bowling alleys from the government, so we have to go to different private clubs and schedule our practice hours accordingly. We can’t take more than three hours in one club at a time.”

Rehman said that the total cost of sending the team to Russia for the event is Rs850,000, which was organised by the players and the Pakistan Tenpin Bowling Federation (PTBF) alone, whereas the PSB only helped in issuing the No-Objection Certificates.

“We need monetary support from the PSB. It is supposed to promote sports in the country, but they are not promoting anything. We were just told that they can’t give us the funds for our participation in the World Cup even though we informed them about the event six months ago.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2013.

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