PAKISTAN IS WINNING BEYOND CRICKET, WE’RE JUST NOT WATCHING

There is a particular kind of déjà vu that comes with being a Pakistani sports fan. You open your phone, scroll past another polished campaign, another brand shoot, another press conference featuring the same familiar cricket faces. The narratives rarely change. The performances, lately, haven’t either. Yet the spotlight refuses to move.

And that is where the real story begins.

Because outside the floodlights of cricket stadiums, there is a quieter, grittier, far more compelling version of Pakistan’s sporting identity unfolding. One that isn’t being televised in prime time. One that doesn’t come with million-rupee endorsement deals. One that, despite everything, keeps winning.

Take Shahzaib Rind. 

While most timelines were busy dissecting cricket politics, he was out there representing Pakistan on an international stage, picking up yet another win in Miami. Not a viral moment. Not a trending headline. If you came across it at all, it was likely through his own posts or a scattered story shared by someone in his circle.

That silence is telling.

Because this is not an isolated case. It is a pattern.

Arslan Ash has rewritten the global esports narrative, becoming a dominant force in Tekken and putting Pakistan on a map few even knew existed in competitive gaming. 

Multiple world titles. International acclaim. A legacy in the making. And yet, outside of niche gaming communities, his victories barely scratch mainstream consciousness. No massive billboards. No flood of brand deals matching his global stature. Certainly nothing comparable to the commercial machinery that continues to orbit around cricket.

Then there’s Arshad Nadeem.

 

When he brought home Olympic gold, the country did what it always does best, it showed up. Social media exploded. Clips circulated. Pride surged through timelines. For a moment, the nation remembered what it feels like to celebrate something truly historic.

But moments pass.

And even a gold medal, the kind that should redefine sporting priorities, struggles to compete with the constant churn of cricket coverage. The attention fades. The system resets. The same faces reclaim the narrative.

The irony? The audience is not the problem.

We have already seen what happens when given an alternative. When football tournaments have been held locally, particularly in regions like Balochistan, crowds have turned up in numbers. Stadiums filled. Energy built organically. People wanted to watch. They wanted to engage. They wanted something different.

Even with the complicated history of governance issues and suspensions surrounding Pakistan Football Federation, the appetite for football in Pakistan has never really disappeared. It has simply been underfed. Underreported. Undervalued.

And then there is hockey, once the crown jewel of Pakistan’s sporting identity. A sport where Pakistan was not just competitive, but dominant. Today, it survives in fragments. Occasionally surfacing in conversations, rarely in investment strategies. Even the women’s side, despite moments of promise and persistence, operates far from the visibility it deserves.

So the question is not whether Pakistan has talent across sports.

It does.

The real question is why that talent exists in parallel universes.

On one side, a cricket ecosystem that continues to receive disproportionate institutional backing, commercial investment, and media coverage, largely governed by bodies like the Pakistan Cricket Board. On the other, athletes who are often self-funded, self-promoted, and sustained more by personal grit than systemic support.

This imbalance shapes everything.

Who gets seen.

Who gets sponsored.

Who gets remembered.

Brands follow visibility. Visibility follows coverage. Coverage follows a cycle that no one seems willing to disrupt.

But here is the shift that is quietly happening.

The audience is evolving faster than the system.

People are watching global sports. They are following MMA, football leagues, athletics, esports. Their timelines are no longer limited to one sport or one narrative. They are open to discovering new heroes, new stories, new reasons to feel connected to Pakistan on a global stage.

What they are not getting is access.

Because mainstream coverage still decides what becomes a “moment” and what fades into obscurity.

And that needs to change.

Not as a rejection of cricket, but as a recalibration of what deserves attention.

Because supporting athletes like Shahzaib Rind or Arslan Ash is not a niche interest. It is national representation at its purest form. It is Pakistan showing up and winning in spaces where the odds are often steeper and the spotlight far dimmer.

It is also, quite frankly, a better story.

An athlete training without infrastructure, competing without backing, and still standing on an international podium is not just a win. It is a narrative of resilience that cricket, in its current form, is struggling to offer.

The responsibility, then, is shared.

Media platforms need to widen their lens.

Brands need to rethink where they invest.

Institutions need to diversify their support.

And audiences, who have already shown they are ready, need to keep demanding more.

Because Pakistan does not lack sporting heroes.

It just hasn’t been looking in the right places.

Text: Sundus Unsar Raja @sublimerantr