KARACHI, Feb 16: As anticipated, the 11th Sindh Games which concluded at Sukkur on Friday turned out to be an exercise in futility. The biennial games were hurriedly announced without taking the country’s general elections into consideration and were preceded by turmoil in rural Sindh in the aftermath of Benazir’s assassination.

Those who matter in the corridors of power in the province when reminded of the situation before the event were bent upon throwing the tax-payers money and refused to carry the games forward, until after the polls.

It is a general practice that date and venue of any competition are announced much earlier with a view to give ample time to athletes for preparations. However, in present scenario this was not done and the contestants were booked for the destination in busses.

According to insiders, officials are putting the cost of the games to around Rs12 million which is some two million rupees more than the Hyderabad Games held in 2005.

The acting Sindh Sports Minister, Amber Raza Nensey, holds an important portfolio having a battalion of staff at her disposal in the province. Though a hefty amount of money was set aside for the games, none of the officials, either from her office or the Sindh Sports Board, even bothered to provide any sort of information to media.

They seem to be ‘satisfied’ with their job following their appearance on different TV channels at the opening and closing ceremonies.

Information gathered by Dawn reveals that Karachi amassed 60 golds, 29 silvers and 15 bronzes to retain the overall trophy. In men’s, their tally comes to 44-21-14 while in women’s they pocketed 16-8-1.

Hosts Sukkur finished runners-up 19 golds, 20 silvers and 30 bronzes while Hyderabad was placed overall third securing 15 golds, 31 silvers and 21 bronzes.

The fourth position went to Larkana who picked up five golds, 15 silvers and 33 bronzes. Mirpur Khas with five golds, nine silvers and 23 bronzes settled at the bottom in the five-team contest.

The competitions were held in 22 disciplines for men’s and 10 for women’s.

Men’s: athletics, badminton, basketball, body building, boxing, cycling, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, karate, kodi kodi, malh, netball, shooting ball, squash, table tennis, tennis, tak kwondo, volleyball, wanjhwatti and weightlifting.

Women’s: athletics, badminton, basketball, handball, hockey, netball, squash, table tennis, tae kwondo and volleyball.

The players were given daily allowance @ Rs150 for six days which include a day before and a day after the event while officials got @ Rs200 for the same period. This was in addition to the accommodation.

All disciplines barring boxing, weightlifting and gymnastics were held at Sukkur. The first two were held at Gothki while the latter at Khairpur.

According to eye-witnesses, players and officials have complaint of poor quality tracksuits. Some of them even failed to get them and also the dailies. The participants also faced hardships in accommodation and transportation.

Karachi-Hyderabad tussle: Some disciplines including basketball and tennis witnessed ugly scenes which left much to be desired.

The men’s basketball final between Karachi and Hyderabad could not be played as the latter not only walked-off the field after raising objection against referees but their captain, Rehan Ansari, also broke the ring of Sukkur Physical College court.

This happened in presence of the secretary sports, Sindh, who latter declared Karachi winner and Hyderabad runners-up.

Similarly, the acting sports minister faced embarrassment when two Karachi players — Nomi Qamar and Khalid Ali Nazar — used indecent language against umpires in the tennis final against Hyderabad which they (Karachi) lost 1-2. They also refused to receive their medals from the chief guest.

The Sindh Tennis Association was quick to slap two-month ban on both the players while a similar action against the Rehan and his team is awaited.

The question which arises is that has the games served the purpose or help in improving the downward trend of sports in the country.

Overall medals position

(Tabulated under team, gold, silver and bronze)

Karachi 60 29 15

Sukkur 19 20 30

Hyderabad 15 31 21

Larkana 5 15 33

Mirpurkhas 5 9 23.