Pakistan’s prestige in squash seems to be going nowhere. It is still dangling in the air
Constant failures of the country’s leading players after the retirement of incomparable Jahangir Khan and remarkable Jansher Khan has cost Pakistan dearly its status as a leading and prominent nation in the world of squash.
The shock and awe of the nation remains. Nobody seems to know the answer to the question, why we have failed to produce a single player who can win a single major title outside the country? Almost six years have gone since the World Open record holder (eight times) Jansher Khan announced his retirement. Earlier in the Nineties, Jahangir Khan, the greatest squash player of all time, had hung his racket in 1993. He is now the president of the World Squash Federation.
Thereafter, great hopes had been pinned with Amjad Khan, the last winner of the Pakistan Open in Karachi in 1997. Dreams had been entertained of him maintaining the country image in the international field. However, this great fighter had the misfortune of having no coach or sponsor. Disgusted, with the passage of time he lost his interest in hard and strenuous training and invariably became prone to injuries.
Other players who showed interest in the mid-nineties included Mansoor Zaman, Shahid Zaman, Aijaz Azmat, Shamsul Islam Khan and Mohammad Ilyas. All of them worked hard and competed in a number of international tournaments with the required support from the Pakistan Squash Federation. The PSF held a number of training camps but the coaches failed to get the players commit themselves professionally. Almost all the camps were run at the whims of players as coaches lacked authority to enforce discipline and make the players work hard. Pakistan failed to win back the World Junior (Under-19 ) Squash, team title and none of the above mentioned players could win the individual title. They were good at the Asian level but never made any sort of impact on the world level.
Left handed Mansoor Zaman, son of former British Open champion Qamar Zaman, became the country’s ace player, when he reached the eleventh tier of world ranking. It was the highest world ranking Pakistan has achieved in a long time. Stroke player Mansoor hates long rallies and his reliability for winning a major tournament had always been in doubt as he unnecessarily indulged in risky strokes. He wants to finish the match as quickly as possible for apparently he lacks the required stamina to stay on the court for longer periods. His main weakness appears to be match fitness.
Mansoor younger cousin Shahid Zaman, also a stroke player, started well. But he too avoided hard training with the result that he failed to be even among the Top 20. Last year, in May, he was ranked at 35. This is the same ranking that he has retained this year as well. And that other players, well, the less said about them the better. For sure, it is a tall order for Pakistan to re-establish its image in the world of squash.
Disappointed by the constant failure of the coaches to deliverer, the PSF, acquired the services of world-renowned coach, Rehmat Khan. This is the same Rehmat Khan who moulded Jahangir into the world beater. Rehmat was given full authority for the selection of youngsters and given absolute power for removing any trainee if he did not follow the training schedule.
The youngsters went through a rigorous schedule. The result was, Pakistan won back the 2002 World Junior team title in the city of Chennia, after a lapse of 20 years. It was a remarkable performance on the part of youngsters. Majid Khan, Khayal Mohammad, Javed Iqbal Burki, Yasir Butt, Farrukh Zaman, Khalid Atlas, Farhan Mahboob and a good number of others. Majid, Burki, Farrukh and Khayal are in the second string of our national squash and no more in the wing as they are in the senior camp for which the PSF has engaged former international Jamshed Gul as a coach. However, one feels that the PSF might have committed the mistake of putting all the players, who won the World Junior Team title, into the senior camp. It would have been much better had two top players of the 2002 victorious team had been under the constant training of Rehmat Khan who should have been given the right to pick two players for further training and coaching.
Rehmat knows the capabilities of the juniors who had been under his training. Still there is time that Rehmat should be asked to pick two players and make them work hard for meeting the top flight challenge. Otherwise the PSF exercise might fail in achieving the desired goal of a winning performance by its players in major international tournaments.
Two players can easily get specialized training under Rehmat Khan for at least two more years. Unless our players win major tournaments, such as the British Open and the World Open, Pakistan cannot regain its lost glory. And time is running out .
Pakistan’s prestige in squash seems to be going nowhere. It is still dangling in the air 
