Sports
IOC mulls reform in selection process for future Olympic hosts
MILAN: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering reforming its procedure for awarding future Games to restore “transparency” and establish a clearer timetable, as the contest looms as to who hosts the 2036 Summer Olympics.
The 2036 race is considered wide open and is expected to feature bids from India and Qatar, with Saudi Arabia, South Korea, South Africa, Turkey and Chile among other interested parties.
“While there is no desire to return to the costly pre-2019 bidding process, the current election process requires refinement,” former Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, now an IOC member, told delegates on Wednesday during the IOC Session in Milan ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Grabar-Kitarovic, who heads a working group on the designation of Olympic hosts set up by IOC president Kirsty Coventry, said she believed “structured timelines, increased transparency and more meaningful participation by IOC members” were required.
Since 2019 — when Coventry’s predecessor Thomas Bach was president — the IOC has radically changed the way it chooses Games organisers, with the aim of stemming the lack of candidates, reducing costs and avoiding inflicting public humiliation on unsuccessful bidders.
Gone are the suspense-filled elections, seven years before the event, in which the lucky winner was drawn from an envelope during a ceremony broadcast around the world, after costly campaigns to promote bids.
Negotiations are now confidential until the designation of a “preferred host”, which is selected behind closed doors by the IOC’s Executive Board and approved at the end of the process by the roughly 100 IOC members meeting in their Session.
Grabar-Kitarovic said her working group was proposing introducing a “transitional stage”.
It would “allow shortlisting of a limited number of interested parties with advanced projects for deeper evaluation”.
That evaluation “should be based on transparent criteria published in advance”, she added.
Grabar-Kitarovic suggested such criteria could include “the importance of venue master plans, clarity on the sports programme, financial guarantees, and the added value of prior experience in hosting multi-sport events”.
The current procedure for selecting hosts has led to extremes, ranging from awarding the 2032 Olympics to Brisbane 11 years in advance to granting the 2030 Winter Games to the French Alps less than six years before the event, while the venue map and sports programme still needed to be finalized, along with the detailed budget.
Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2026
HYDERABAD: After the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) approached the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC), in writing, to seek control of Niaz Stadium for its up-gradation purposes, HMC informed PCB late last month that a formal meeting should be held in this regard to discuss the proposal in detail.
This has come as a latest development regarding Niaz Stadium’s long delayed infrastructural development and up-gradation which hosted the unveiling ceremony of Hyderabad’s team into 11th edition of Pakistan Super League only on Saturday night.
PCB’s Chief Operating Officer (CEO) Sumair Ahmed Syed wrote to Hyderabad Mayor Kashif Ali Shoro on Jan 15 after the visit of Director Domestic Operations in the backdrop of Nov 29, 2025 visit to the stadium. He conceded the historical importance of the stadium which he said renders it a valuable sporting asset at both provincial and national levels.
A joint inspection of PCB’s Director and local administration as well as HMC representatives revealed that ground needed up-gradation and technical intervention particularly in respect of pitches, outfield and allied infrastructure to restore it to an operational standard suitable for high level cricket activities.
PCB’s immediate objective is to upgrade the stadium to a standard suitable for premier domestic cricket tournaments including President’s and Quaid-e-Azam trophies.
PCB has urged HMC to hand over the stadium to it for purposes of up-gradation, technical intervention, maintenance and operational management under a mutually agreed arrangement.
The joint visit followed a meeting between Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh irrigation minister Jam Khan Shoro and PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi. They had discussed the stadium’s much-awaited development and up-gradation.
“Yes, following our meeting PCB officials visited the ground late last year”, said Jam Khan told Dawn. He said the stadium could again be handed over to PCB for developing infrastructure at par with international stadia. “We, however, expect PCB will not disappoint people of Hyderabad this time round and will really go on to develop the ground as required under certain agreement”, he replied in a cautious tone.
Jam in fact alluded to almost two decades back handing over of stadium to PCB in July 2007 under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) whereby PCB committed to rebuild stadium from scratch to bring it at par with modern day requirements of international cricket.
HMC is custodian of Niaz Stadium. In response to Jan 15’s communication, its Municipal Commissioner Zahoor Lakhan wrote to Sumair Ahmad Syed that HMC appreciates efforts of PCB for rehabilitation and holding domestic and international matches there.
Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2026
South Africa inflicted a 57-run thrashing on Canada in Ahmedabad on Monday, as the 2024 runners-up opened their latest T20 World Cup campaign with a dominant performance with bat and ball.
After Canada won the toss and elected to field, South Africa smashed 47 off the last three overs to pile up 213-4, the highest total so far in this year’s T20 World Cup.
David Miller hit an unbeaten 39 off 23 balls and Tristan Stubbs was not out 34 off 19 as they put on an unbroken stand of 75 in 6.1 overs at the end.
Canada’s Navneet Dhaliwal was the only top- order batsman to offer any resistance, falling for 64 in the final over as Canada were restricted to 156-8 in reply.
Lungi Ngidi did the bulk of the damage for South Africa, taking 4-31 from his four overs as their pace attack had Canada reeling at 45-4 during the powerplay.
Ngidi was named player of the match and said the evening dew had helped his variation.
“It did have a bit of an impact. You could see that once you bowled a touch fuller, it would sort of just slide on. The slow balls were still holding up a little bit,” he said.
“We knew that obviously our attack brings pace, but for me, I feel like the variations are always the ones that catch people out.” Quinton de Kock and captain Aiden Markram got South Africa off to a flying start, putting on an opening stand of 70 in 6.5 overs.
De Kock was first to fall, for 25, bowled by a dipping off-spinner from Dilpreet Bajwa.
Markram sailed on and reached his fifty off 28 balls before falling for 59, caught in the deep after hitting 10 fours and a six.
Left-arm wrist-spinner Ansh Patel was the successful bowler and he enjoyed a fine spell, also removing Ryan Rickelton for a brisk 33 off 21 balls and Dewald Brevis for six.
Patel finished with 3-31 off his four overs after reducing South Africa from 125-1 to 138-4 before Miller and Stubbs took over.
Hyderabad administration seeks formal meeting with PCB over Niaz Stadium’s restoration
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