January 25, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 21, 1423

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RAWALPINDI, Jan 24: President of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir Friday took yet another swipe at the senior players while praising the juniors for their recent international successes.

“When I took over, I tried to set goals for both the senior and junior levels but I have not been successful with the seniors,” he told journalists at the official launch of the Asian Junior Championship starting in Islamabad on Feb 2.

“At the senior level we have potential champions but they are not willing to put in hard work that is required to become champions,” he said in a clear reference to Mansoor Zaman and Shahid Zaman.

“The players have to go through rigorous training in a set fashion which they have not been doing.”

“If the seniors had worked the way we had wanted them to, they would have today been among the top 10 in the world.” Mansoor, at No 16 is Pakistan’s highest ranked player on the PSA ladder while Shahid is No. 32.

“It is easier to get hold of a budding player and train him, however doing so with a senior is a lot tougher as he has already developed certain habits that are difficult to change.”

Mushaf admitted that there was a lot of politics in squash which he had decided to disregard in his bid to achieve the goals he had set some years ago. “Neglecting politics was also my goal,” he said.

Mushaf under whom Pakistan recently won the World Junior Championship in Chennai for the first time in over two decades besides the three Junior British Open titles clinched this month, said the PSF’s junior development programme was beginning to yield results.

The Pakistani team of Khayal Muhammad, Majid Khan, Safeerullah Khan and Khalid Atlas took the top honours in Chennai while at the Junior British Open in Sheffield, Safeerullah captured the under-19 crown, Yasir Butt took the under-17 title and Amir Atlas bagged the under-13 prize.

Finding money to keep all of his plans going was another one of Mushaf’s goals, which he said came in the shape of government grants and sponsors. The fifth goal was to evolve a strategy to provide maximum opportunities to the players to compete in tournaments abroad and holding more international events at home. “Helping Jahangir Khan become the president of the WSF (World Squash Federation) was done so that he in turn could help us get international tournaments.”

He felt that the provincial associations needed to develop squash at the junior level and identify talent which could then be groomed for the future.

Mushaf also gave away cash prizes to the winners of the World Junior Championship with Rs 100,000 each going to the team members including coach Rehmat Khan. Shah Nawaz was awarded Rs 25,000 while the party’s assistant coach Ayaz Khan collected Rs 30,000.

The British Open winners Safeerullah Khan, Yasir Butt, Amir Atlas got richer by Rs 50,000 each. Smaller cash awards ranging between 30,000 and 20,000 went to Farhan Mahboob and Adnan Khan and coaches Mahboob Khan and Muhammad Naeem. Rehmat picked up another cheque of Rs 40,000.