Zaigham Maseel’s message: Why Pakistan’s sporting revival must begin with character
Asher Butt
In a time when Pakistan’s sporting results continue to lag behind nations with fewer resources and smaller populations, former international boxer Zaigham Maseel has offered a sobering yet hopeful perspective on what truly drives progress. His words are not just a critique—they’re a call to conscience.
Maseel, who won a silver medal at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima and later served as national coach for Pakistan’s Olympic boxing team, believes that the crisis in Pakistani sports is not merely technical or financial—it is moral. “There are countries poorer and smaller than ours—Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Bahrain—that continue to outperform us,” he notes. “They are moving forward. We are moving backward.”
His diagnosis is clear: the absence of values like honesty, empathy, and justice has corroded not just sports, but the broader social fabric. “Jealousy, selfishness, and greed have become normalized,” he writes. “These behaviors create corruption in our institutions and destroy the spirit of competition.”
Maseel’s credentials lend weight to his words. Beyond his achievements in the ring, he has trained referees, judges, and coaches as an AIBA-certified official, served as Assistant Professor of Sports for the Pakistan Navy, and worked as Sports Director at a school in Bahrain. His life has been spent not just in competition, but in education and mentorship.
His solution is deceptively simple: entrust responsibility to honest, intelligent, and hardworking individuals. “If we do this with sincerity,” he says, “then development and victory will follow without doubt.”
In a sporting culture often dominated by short-term fixes and reactive policies, Zaigham Maseel’s message is a reminder that real progress begins with people—and with the values they carry. His voice deserves to be heard not just in boxing circles, but across every federation, boardroom, and training ground in Pakistan.
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