The much delayed Opening ceremony of 9th SAF Games got more delayed due to security risks to the 'overly popular' President. Although underlit, the ceremony was an overall good presentation, much thanks to chinese assistance asusual. But the commentator on PTV and GEO spoilt the show. How a person so utterly outdated and inept was put there in the first place is hard to imagine..

After being postponed thrice for security reasons, the ninth South Asian Federation (SAF) Games finally got off to a gala beginning on March 29th, Monday night. President Musharraf declared the ceremony open after a breif delay as organisers held their breaths when the Presidential motorcade did not turn up on time. Any how, the grandiose opening ceremony did go underway as planned and was the biggest and perhaps the best managed mega-ceremony ever held in Pakistan. A lot of applause for the managing teams including the Beijing based event consultants.

The managing team however did include scores of uniformed men. The Army and sports have always been linked in Pakistan, then again what hasn't! What the management failed to understand was the need to undermine their military identities so as not to project the image of a military regime in control of each and every project in the country, this one in particular had a Rs 600 million tag on it.

Now back to reviewing the ceremony. Executive Director Richard Curzon did an excellent job in portraying epic stories like the fairy tale of Saif-ul-Maluk. Over 8,000 students and volunteers from Islamabad and Rawalpindi participated to perfection. The lights however were not quite perfect maybe because the Jinnah Stadium doesnot actually have any flood-light system. There were shadows everywhere.. around the corners.. even when they showed President on the screen, one could barely makeout if it was really him. Maybe it was another one of his security gimmicks.

And then there was this commentator.. Mr talk-a-lot-know-a-dime. He was plain disgusting. Even a child knows things like the folk dancers with swords are from NWFP and not Punjab. His constant blunders like saying 'now you see 8 stars on your screen' when all one could see were 8 big circles! and then proclaiming Faisal and Bilal of the Strings are brothers? I mean where did he get this from? How more lame can one get on International live media? And if that was not enough, he had this terrible accent.. trying to make up on his short-comings? I dont think so! PTV managed to destroy what SAF organisers had worked day and night for during past 3 years.

In events like these, a country's image is at stake. People in Pakistan may be well ignorant not to notice such petty mistakes but when you are hosting a Live International event and then broadcasting it live, across half the world.. it deserves a litte more effort to save from embarrassment in the end.

With the Games now finally underway, the Indians are expected to be the most gold winners although Pakistan has the biggest contingent of over 500 athletes. We wish the Pakistani athletes all the best.