Test Cricketers Laud Karachi University Vibrant Sports Culture

APP

Karachi: Former test cricketers praised the sports facilities and activities offered at the University of Karachi. They commended the significant participation of students in various sports competitions hosted at KU.

The ex-captains of the national cricket team are Azhar Ali and Mohammad Hafiz, along with the international hockey player, Olympian Qamar Ibrahim.

The Director General of Sports of the Higher Education Commission-Islamabad, Javed Ali Memon, and others attended the closing ceremony of the KU Sports Gala 2024.

The event was held at the Professor Salimuzzaman Siddiqui Auditorium of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences of the University of Karachi on Thursday.

The KU Directorate of Physical Education, in collaboration with the KU Student Advisor Office and the KU Gymkhana Committee, jointly organized the week-long event on the campus.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi said that the advanced nations give special importance to sports because they believe that sports-related activities help promote positive trends in societies and motivate them a lot.

He mentioned that sports activities also help in creating discipline in our lives and provide opportunities for the youth to express and utilize their nature-given talents. He advised that sports culture needs to be promoted throughout the country and that investment should be made in this sector.

The University of Karachi is constantly trying to promote sports activities on campus and also provides scholarships to encourage students involved in different games.

He shared that the KU, in collaboration with the HEC-Islamabad, would soon inaugurate a football ground and an academy on the campus.

The KU VC Khalid Iraqi informed the audience that with the help of the KU alumni, he would make the hockey field functional and engage hockey experts for its revival on the campus.

He announced that a sports gala would be held twice a year to give students a good chance to showcase their talents in different games.

On this occasion, the former captain of the national cricket team, Azhar Ali, said that sports play a key role in the development of nations. As a nation, we need to invest in sports because the future belongs to sports, and educational institutions can play a key role in developing it.

He shared that he was surprised to see different grounds on the campus and said that it is so rare to see playgrounds in educational institutions. Azhar Ali hoped that youngsters would achieve their goals with their dedication and hard work.

Meanwhile, another former captain of the national cricket team, Mohammad Hafeez, said that in order to make a name and a place in any sport, it is necessary that a person have the ability to show talent on the field.

He shared that it was good to know that a large number of girls and boys have taken part in different games during a week-long event.

Hafeez mentioned that a talented person should not be worried about selection in teams, as sooner or later he or she would become a part of a team on merit.

Olympian Qamar Ibrahim, while congratulating the winning teams, said that losing teams should not lose hope and try to learn from their mistakes to become winners in the future.

He said that as there are ups and downs in sports, there are also ups and downs in life, but games teach us how to deal with the situation and improve the quality of a game to become a winner.

On this occasion, the DG Sports HEC-Islamabad Javed Memon said that the participation of 4,500 students in the interdepartmental sports gala proved that the University of Karachi encourages its students to participate in curricular and extracurricular activities.

He shared that girls also took part in every competition, which was a good sign and shows that they also like to showcase their talents if they get opportunities.

He said that the Federal HEC is providing facilities to the University of Karachi for the construction of a football ground and a football academy, which would fulfill all the modern-day requirements. In the second phase, a resource center and physiology lab will be established on the campus.

Javed Memon said that the purpose of promoting sports activities in educational institutions is that we want to see educated people in sports activities as players, coaches, umpires, and other sports-related positions in the future.

Earlier, the KU Director of the Directorate of Physical Education, Professor Dr. Basit Ansari, informed the audience that Sports Gala 24 was inaugurated on February 28, and until March 6, 2024, 4,500 students from around 40 departments participated in different games.

He shared that there were a total of 156 teams, including 46 cricket teams consisting of boys and girls. 28 football, 42 badminton, 16 basketball, 16 volleyball, and 8 athletic teams participated, and special races for the differently-abled students of KU were also held during the sports gala.

Later, the KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi, former captains of the national cricket team Azhar Ali and Mohammad Hafeez, international hockey player Qamar Ibrahim, and the DG Sports HEC-Islamabad Javed Ali Memon distributed prizes among the runners-up and winning teams.