Jansher criticizes appointment of unqualified coaches
By Our Sports Correspondent
LAHORE, Aug 5: Eight-times world champion Jansher Khan has criticized Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) senior vice-president Air Marshal Raashid Kaleem for appointing a panel of unqualified coaches.
" As a Pakistani and a former world No 1, I have the dual responsibility to point out all the wrong doings of the federation and flaws the in the system," Jansher said at a press conference along with former Pakistan's world No 8 Amjad Khan on Thursday.
Jansher had criticized the panel of coaches appointed by the PSF - Rahmat Khan, Jamshed Gul, Mehboob, Ayaz - saying they were not qualified. He said he had requested the PSF to appoint him as a coach along with Jehangir Khan, Qamar Zaman, Gogi Alauddin and others who were among the top players of the world during their prime.
But he did not receive any reply from the federation, he added. He said Gogi was imparting training to the government officers. "I ask the PSF if a coach of Gogi's calibre is for training the officers or to groom future champions," he said.
Jansher claimed that within the present system the PSF would not get even a boy in the top 50 of the world in the next 30 years. He said the PSF had been raising hollow slogans for the last many years that it would produce world champions soon.
He said the PSF was hoodwinking the nation by claiming its success at junior level in some tournaments. "If the PSF's target is at junior level, I ask them where our players stand in the world ranking," he said.
Jansher pointed out that Pakistani junior players, despite showing some good performance, were not the future's hope as the last British Open champion, Safeer Khan, was nowhere in the world standings.
He said all the top senior Pakistani players - Mansoor Zaman, Shahid Zaman, Farrukh Zaman - had reached the age of 27 and there was no hope they would challenge the world.
Jansher urged the PSF to hand over a group of players between eight and 10 years to him, Jehangir, Gogi Alauddin, Qamar Zaman and other greats of the game and if they failed to show encouraging results within two years, dismiss them.
He also urged the federation to start league matches system in the country as it was the only way to increase the stamina of the players. He said the PSF had unnecessarily built the Mushaf Ali Mir Squash Complex in Islamabad where another international standard complex was already available.
He expressed his surprise over building of two all-glass courts at the Mushaf Ali Mir Complex. Throughout the world, only the top 16 players' round was being held at one glass court, he said.
He said the PSF had also frustrated the probables by holding the training camp only at Islamabad. The camps should be held in every big city so that the players felt a flare of change.
