No South Asian is unaware of the famous rural game “Gulli Danda.”
In the pleasant childhood, each of us either played or watched the game being played in the streets of our villages and cities. Traditionally, this game is played with two pieces of equipment – a danda, being a long wooden stick, and a gulli, a small oval-shaped piece of wood.
I still remember how we used to balance the gulli on a stone in an inclined see-saw manner where it’s one end was touching the ground and the other tempting to be coined and hit with the danda. Once the gulli was airborne, the opposing players, standing in a circle, would run after it. The hitter was supposed to run and touch a pre-agreed point outside the circle before the gulli could be retrieved by an opponent.
If an opponent catches the airborne gulli, the hitter is out. Otherwise, the fielder can hit the danda, which has to be placed on top of the circle used, with a throw. A successful hit to danda means the striker is out; if not, the striker gets a point or score and a chance to hit the gulli again. If a striker is out, his next team member comes in. And when strikers from both the teams finish their turn, the team with the most points wins the game.
Two famous games have been evolved from this famous South Asian rural game, cricket and baseball.
Cricket, in our region is a game of nerves. South Asian countries including Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh play cricket in madness. Whenever there is a match between any of them, especially India and Pakistan, it seems as if a war is going on. Roads are empty as are offices. The president or the Premier and other politicians of the winning team’s country get to gloat.
Cricket in Pakistan is not very old. On November 22, 1935, this region saw its first international cricket match. Notably, that is well before the birth of Pakistan. The match was between Sindhi and Australian cricket teams. There were about 5,000 spectators. In South Asia, this game was introduced by the British during their colonial rule of British South Asia, which covered the area now known as Pakistan. But cricket fever in this region took hold in 1954, when for the first time; Team Pakistan defeated the England Cricket Team on their home turf in front of their fans, besting them in the game they invented. This was a start of cricket following in Pakistan.
Pakistan has won the Cricket World Cup in 1992, which was followed by multiple wins in ICC World T-20 other international cricket events. But this cricket fever has delayed interest and development of our athletes taking part in other individual and team sports. The flow of money, sponsorships and the governmental shadow all decidedly favor cricket.
Pakistan is a country of 200 million people, but only seven athletes represented our country this year at the just-completed Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This single-digit representation comes on the heels of having 21 athletes represent our nation in 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London). Still, these numbers are a far cry from the 62 countrymen who represented Pakistan at the 1956 (Melbourne) Summer Games, or the 49 who competed in 1960 in Rome.
United States swimmer Michael Phelps won his 20th and 21st Olympic gold medals this year. In contrast, Pakistan, in 19 Olympic Games appearances, has won just 10 Olympic medals in its sporting history. Three gold medals have been won by our national field hockey team, the last coming in the 1984 (Los Angeles Games). In all, Pakistan has won eight medals – 3 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze in field hockey since the country made its debut at the London Games in 1948. Two bronze medals also have been won in wrestling and boxing.
But this year our hockey team even failed to even qualify for the Olympics. This shows our overall degradation in sports and also hints that our madness for cricket may well be stifling our progress in other sports such as baseball.
During my work with The Florida Times Union, in Jacksonville, Florida, editor Kenneth Amos asked, “Do you like Baseball?” Before I could answer, the next thing he said shocked me with pleasure. “You know the owner of our National Football League team, the Jacksonville Jaguars is Pakistani-American billionaire Shahid Khan.”
His passion about these sports sparked an immediate interest within me. I went to the Jacksonville Baseball Grounds to take in an evening of minor league baseball. The small stadium was full and the scene was no less than a cricket stadium in Pakistan. It was a game with similarities to cricket, which caused me to quietly wonder why, given how well we perform in cricket, could we not also excel at baseball.
To my surprise and happiness I recently found an answer.
But first, you must know that Syed Khawar Shah brought baseball to Pakistan in 1992. The secretary of the sports board in Punjab had learned that baseball would be an Olympic Sport at the 1992 Summer Games (Barcelona) and he wanted Pakistani athletes to become familiar with it.
Fast-forward to last weekend as four teams contested the last remaining participation slot in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Competitors include Great Britain, Brazil, Israel and Pakistan.
Pakistan, a decided underdog, got a warm welcome in Brooklyn, New York. Even though our young men were swept out of the double-elimination tournament by Brazil and Great Britain there were small moral victories along the way.
For some of our player, it first time playing with regulation wooden bats, donning batting gloves and being equipped with proper catching gear. And the team held Brazil, a team loaded with connections of Major League Baseball, the gold standard of the sport in the U.S., scoreless in three of the seven innings. And Pakistan center fielder Muhammad Sumair Zawar’ base hit in his first at bat in the opening game against Brazil set of wild cheering among his teammates.
Pakistan’s very presence in this tournament is big news despite a lack of grass-roots support in our country where there are no manicured grass fields truly fit for baseball. Ours is a land in which most Pakistanis are not yet aware of this game’s rules. And surely none of us know any of the players like Zawar or Umair Imdad Bhatti or Arsalan Jamashaid or Fazal Ur Rehman, who are part of the Pakistan National Baseball Team.
Previously, Team Pakistan had participated in the Asian Games 2014 and qualified for the WBC tournament. They won the Asian Baseball Championship (C Level) in 2010, beating Hong Kong 10-0, and finished no worse than second in each of their past nine appearances in this tourney. In the Asian Baseball Cup, the team has never failed to place in the top three. It is now ranked fifth overall in Asia and 23rd in the world, based on the outcome of regional championships.
John Goulding, a retired U.S. high school coach with 40 years’ experience in the game, spent two weeks in August and September in Lahore indoctrinating and fine-tuning our passionate warriors. Based on his limited exposure, Goulding still offered that if Pakistan had professional pitching coaches work with its strongest arms, there soon would be Pakistani players in the high-level minor-leagues. And since many of their players have extensive cricket experience, this isn’t at all far-fetched.
So, while the Pakistan media continues to glorify the activities of those who play cricket, the hard work of these guys has garnered scant attention. There certainly were no breaking news alerts for them; after all this was just a WBC qualifier.
But in the U.S., a baseball-loving nation, the response was far different.
Our home-grown team members were interviewed by the local and foreign journalists, members of the Pakistani-American community and American media ESPN showcased their success. They were asked for their autographs by U.S. baseball fans who see the fine athletes from our country joyfully embracing their national pastime. And they are treating our young men as more than a curiosity. Their efforts— and the love they displayed for such a nuanced sport that each is still learning — were met with applause and respect.
Some experts believe that baseball eventually will be able to stake a claim to part of Pakistan’s sporting consciousness. But first, Team Pakistan will need to rank among the top four teams in Asia to qualify for the Olympics when baseball makes its returns to the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
With such encouragement and possibilities, now may be the perfect time to begin spreading our sporting wings beyond our beloved cricket.
So let’s continue to nurture those interested in baseball, and from the whole of 200 million, let’s begin to prepare athletes to bring renewed sporting glory field hockey, and new aspirations to the likes of gymnastics, aquatics, volleyball, basketball, football, weightlifting, cycling, archery, rowing, diving, Judo, badminton and more.
Let’s significant broaden our sporting attention span. Who’s game?
