World Exclusive Pakistan Bowling Federation Joint General Secretary Romis Ali talks tenpin

Written by Dominic Gall  
Tuesday, 03 July 2012

Interview
World Exclusive
BY DOMINIC GALL
World Exclusive Pakistan Tenpin Bowling Federation Joint Secretary Romis Ali talks tenpin

Pakistan has not been noted

in the bowling World in the past!

Pakistan has not been noted in the bowling World in the past but that is about to change due in part to a special individual called Romis Ali. A human rights activist he became joint secretary of the Pakistan bowling federation in 2009 and has been raising the profile of the sport in his native country and to the wider World. A keen bowler himself he has found it hard to bowl due to his passion to make the sport more popular in his country. He has been instrumental in creating the country's first ranking system together with Pakistan's main bowling star Aleem Agha and has plans to introduce a youth system to create the stars of the future. It was our great pleasure to speak with Romis about bowling in Pakistan and here is what we found out.

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How did you first get involved in tenpin bowling?
My First Interaction with Tenpin Bowling was in 1990 at Fun Land, Clifton on Brunswick Manual System. It was the first Manual bowling alley of that time when no one knew about Tenpin Bowling in Pakistan.  Later, I experienced number of bowling alleys in different cities of Pakistan.  

What is it about the sport that you enjoy?
I enjoy the focus it requires to drop down the standing army at the opposite corner which involves strategy and geometry to make a shot. Furthermore the whole atmosphere of the sport is very fascinating which releases your stress and provide various health benefits. It is truly the sports for genders of all ages.

As Human Rights Activist I also enjoy the nature of the Tenpin Bowling makes the playing country present a very soft and liberal image where there is complete gender equality providing equal opportunity to the women, Children and Elders of our society.

How did you become secretary of the Pakistan tenpin bowling federation?
In 2007, Pakistan Tenpin Bowling Federation General Secretary, Ijaz ur Rehman, introduced me to the federation and invited me to work for the development and promotion of Tenpin Bowling viewing of my intensive sports management portfolio. Later, I became the elected Joint Secretary of PTBF in 2009.

In 2010, I reorganized Bowling activities in Sindh Province and formulated an authentic platform of Tenpin Bowling with my colleague and bowling legend of Pakistan Mr. Aleem Agha. The platform is named as Sindh Tenpin Bowling Association (STBA). I was elected as the first Founder General Secretary of STBA. Soon after the establishment of STBA, Tenpin Bowling was honoured with the recognized status as a sport in the Sindh province by the Ministry of Sports, Government of Sindh.

Tenpin bowling in Pakistan seems to be an emerging sport, How many bowling centres are there in your country and what is the average cost of a game?
Tenpin Bowling Sport was introduced in Pakistan during 1980s. The first center was established by private sector at Fun Land Karachi which is now obsolete and non-functional. Later on, a new center was developed in Islamabad at Hotshot,  Mega Zone having 10 Lanes and BRUNSWICK – USA equipment.

The city of lights, Karachi, has the honour to house a major number of Bowling Centers /Clubs and gradually the sport has grown up and now emerging as popular sport amongst the people of all ages and status. Since the introduction of this particular sport in Pakistan, Karachi has enjoyed the status of major venue with eight bowling centers, with 70 lanes, more interestingly about 75% of the total numbers of bowling lanes, in Pakistan, are installed in Karachi alone.

Pakistan now has 14 Bowling Centers in different cities and around 6 to 8 centers are under construction. The cost of a single game lies between $1.7 to  $3. 

Published in   World Exclusive Interview  talktenpin.net

They say experience can be the best thing to improve and Pakistan's bowlers were entered into the Brunswick Euro Challenge and Brunswick Italia Challenge this year, Obviously it might be sometime before you have a bowler ready to take on the World but what things are the Pakistan tenpin bowling federation doing to make this a reality in the future?
First of all Pakistan Tenpin Bowling Federation has successfully made an structured, authentic and recognised platform for the potential Tenpin Bowling players to make their way to adopt this sport professionally. The associations working along with the federation are making sure there is development and promotion of the sports in each province.

Secondly, an established ranking system is introduced through which each bowler is rated and ranked. It provides players with the feedback of their game play and recognition for their efforts. It became one of the major reasons of motivation for the players to modify their skills and pursue the sport seriously in order to retain their regional and national positions.

Thirdly, the federation managed to organised ranking tournaments to keep the bowler intact with the sport, so they can practice and compete on regular basis. The ranking System has been introduced for the first time by me & Mr. Aleem Agha (The Bowling Legend of Pakistan) which resulted in improvised performance of players in their region. The regulars practiced by Sindh region through ranking events witnessed in the National Event where they clean swept all the other regions. Later it was adopted on national and other regional platforms.

Lastly, the National championships organised by the federation brings all the players of Pakistanto a single platform to compete and prove their skills. It helps to extract out the leading players in Pakistan who can represent country on International platforms.

The federation has successfully made its efforts in providing structured and result oriented platform for player. The arrangement of regular events has significantly increased the player’s performances. We are working our level best to make all the latest training techniques and modern equipment available for players in order to make them more competitive in future.  Furthermore, activities will be made to make Tenpin Bowling sport inexpensive for the people so that we can shift from emerging phase and make it a mega sports.  

You mention the introduction of a ranking system, This as you know is the right way forward for bowlers and the Pakistan Federation to aim for something higher, Another way is the introduction of a Youth system to find young talent and nurture it, Has a Youth program been introduced in your country?
Well, we have already worked to design our youth development programme which will be implemented soon. We have targeted different age categories in order to promote and develop Tenpin Bowling from a grass roots level. Youth development programmes include

    * under 14 Learn to Bowl Camp
    * under 18 Learn to Bowl Camp for Girls
    * Under 18 Learn to Bowl Camp for boys
    * 100 In-School Learn to Bowl Project

The Learn to Bowl conceptual model has targeted different age categories and will deliver the value package to learn the skills, technicalities along with the knowledge of ethics, benefit and most importantly scope of Tenpin Bowling. 100 In-School activity will make packaged services available to youth within their school campuses in order to make the sport easy approachable. The equipment for learn to bowl project is generously sponsored by the PTBF & STBA in partnership with Vision Bowlers ProShop (first ever PROSHOP in Pakistan)  due to which youth will be provided Free access to such expensive equipment.

Published in   World Exclusive Interview  talktenpin.net

Is it likely we will see an international bowling event hosted in your country in the coming years?
We have couple of interesting events lined up which will be organised in near future. Pakistan Open Tenpin Bowling Championship and other bilateral and tri-angler series.  

Brunswick Euro Challenge Press Conference

Looking at your profile you are a keen bowler yourself, Do you still have time to bowl or are you too busy in your working environment?
It can be said that I am in love with Tenpin Bowling but now my colleagues say that it has now become my wife. Nowadays I rarely get time to play bowling as I am usually busy in developing it's infrastructure from urban to rural area, promoting it among youth and grass root level, and foremost widening the scope of Tenpin Bowling through which we can establish it as a professional sport and make it accessible for every social class.

Are most of the bowling centres in Pakistan Brunswick equipped centres or are there AMF equipped centres and others?
Usually Brunswick equipment’s are installed in centers but we have 2 centers that use AMF equipment.

With Brunswick a strong supporter of bowling in your country is it possible we might see a Brunswick Pakistan Challenge held in your country in the future as many countries are now using the concept?
We would appreciate Brunswick support for Tenpin Bowling through officially recognized platforms in Pakistan. I must say that there is a huge uncultivated potential market for bowling in Pakistan and Tenpin Bowling is quite a popular and emerging sport in the region. I am sure that the participation and support of Brunswick would create a multiplier effect in promotion and development of bowling in Pakistan which could rise up the players’ quality and population. We would always welcome Brunswick and other potential organizations for a Showcase center in Pakistan on such concepts and will be pleased to deliver our expertise and dedicated efforts for their support.

Approximately how many people participate in the sport of bowling in Pakistan and how many members are in the national Federation?
On average 100 players participate in bowling events in Pakistan and we have 500 plus member in total which is increasing at a good place. 

In England bowling is not well supported by our government or national media and it can be hard to gain sponsors for our players, events and National teams, Does the Pakistan government and media support bowling and do companies in Pakistan come forward to support and help bowling?
Despite being the most ancient sport played in around 144 countries, Tenpin Bowling has a dilemma in its promotion and sponsorship management that no significant efforts had been placed for sponsorship and recognitions for Tenpin Bowling compared with other less populous sports.  Similarly in Pakistan, Tenpin bowling is facing same struggle regardless of its attractiveness and beauty.

Initially, it was a very difficult task to obtain such a support from Government/Private Organizations and media as well. According to our market research, two years before Tenpin Bowling was considered as an entertainment for elites rather than a sport which was not easily accessible for the people from all segments even after 10 years of establishment of commercial bowling centers. In fact, it was a raw product in Pakistan with no promotion as a sport, development, government recognition and media coverage.

I would really mention commendable efforts for PTBF & STBA who did really hard effort in creating value of the sports in last 2 years. Both National & Provincial organizations showed remarkable performances through which we achieved to get Tenpin Bowling officially recogised in Sindh province by the Government, and later it got official status on National level as well. During the period of two years of working, Tenpin Bowling received mega promotion on media channels which is still accelerating. We would much appreciate if we receive considerable monetary contribution for both Government and Corporate Sector.

Does the Pakistan Nation team use an experienced bowling coach and in the future would the federation look to the outside World to bring in a World experienced coach to work with your coaches and players?
We currently do not have any professional coach at the moment, although efforts have been made to remove financial constraints in inviting some experienced international coach to train talented players in Pakistan.

Finally besides looking up to the obvious Pakistan bowling legends you have in your country is there any World stars the Pakistan bowlers admire or have a favourite player they like?
Our national bowing legends, Aleem Agha and impressive player, Ijaz ur Rehman are admired by youth but still World stars Bill O’ Neill and Pete Weber are quite famous too. 

A massive thank you to Romis for this informative look into his country and we wish him luck in growing the sport in Pakistan and our hope is we see Pakistan's players becoming well-known names in World bowling in the future.

Published in   World Exclusive Interview  talktenpin.net

 

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