Gone are the days when the Pakistan flag flew on sports fields of the world. Our country had the rare distinction of being the world champion in four different games simultaneously till 1995 i.e. Cricket, Squash, Hockey, and Snooker. Today, we see unbelievable decline in all these games, but especially in the first three. In cricket, Pakistan team has been losing consistently both in Tests as well as ODIs for the last three years. One exception was, of course, the Twenty-Twenty World Cup of 2009 when Pakistan took the mantle of being the champions once again. The recent defeat of the team, in Tests, ODIs, Twenty-Twenty, everything in Australia, was the last nail in the coffin. In other words, Pakistan cricket is dead and buried right now. In Squash, Pakistani players were 'unbeatable for quite a few decades. We dominated the game like no country has ever donebefore or since. Squash legends like Hashim Khan, Jehangir Khan and Jansher Khan kept sweeping off all important trophies of the game all over the world year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation. That was our past. Look at the pitiable condition of the game in Pakistan today that for more than a decade now, our Squash players have been unable to win a single title at the international level. We were, likewise, toast of the world in field hockey too. Along with India, we dominated the sport for decades, our teams bringing countless laurels and honours to Pakistanalas, in the remote past. For decades now, we have been waiting for a spark of that old glory. Snooker nobody laments in Pakistan because it was never an established, or popular, sports within the country. But Muhammad Yousuf put us on top of the world with his singularly brilliant performance in World Amateur Snooker title in 1994 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The sport has dimmed out since but like the big three, it is still avidly followed by fans at home who want to see Pakistan champion again. -ABDUL SAMAD SAMO, Karachi, February 15