KARACHI, Nov 30 Former world champion and squash legend Jansher Khan on Tuesday expressed hope that Pakistan's recent success at the Asian Games coupled with the positive approach of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) high-ups will contribute greatly in reviving the game in the country.

Talking to Dawn, Jansher said he was delighted with Pakistan's success at the Games in Guangzhou, China, and both Farhan Mahboob and Aamir Atlas had lot of potential to do well in the future. “The gold medal in squash will surely encourage the younger players to take up the game,” he opined.

Elaborating on his recent meeting with the PSF chief AVM Rao Qamar and Senior Vice President Razi Nawab in Peshawar, Jansher said various steps and measures to promote the game of squash in Pakistan were discussed there. “I am confident after meeting the AVM and Razi Nawab that the game of squash will now take off once again in the country,” said Jansher. “I am thankful to the two high-ranking officials for giving me so much time and for showing extra-ordinary interest in relaunching of the game that we so dominated for over four decades.”

The former champion, looking as fit as ever, lamented that despite the top facilities and the PSF patronage today, Pakistan has been unable to produce high quality players who could feature in the top world rankings. “Isn't it a pity that since the year 2000, we haven't had a single player who could top the world rankings consistently?” he said. “I can tell you that neither myself nor Jahangir nor Qamar Zaman or Mohibullah ever enjoyed such fine facilities at the national level and yet we rose to great heights.”

He continued “That goes out to show that at the end of the day, it is the individual's effort that pays off,” asserted Jansher.

Jansher, who made headlines during the 1980s and the 1990s for winning almost all the leading tournaments in the world including World Open and British Open, said he was thrilled by the fact the PSF top brass was planning to popularise the game at the grass-roots level.

“Both myself and the PSF officials agreed on promoting the game in schools and colleges by building squash courts at their respective premises which is absolutely great. Countries like Egypt, Australia, England and France have all emerged as leading forces in the game because they have picked and groomed the potential players at the grass-roots level,” he observed.

“In my discussion with the PSF, we have broadly planned to promote the game at district, provincial and national level by holding league matches which would see under-11, U-13 and U-15 players competing amongst themselves and later with the senior players which will help their game tremendously,” Jansher disclosed. “Ideally, we would like some top foreign players to come down and play here but it depends on the circumstances.”

Speaking about the coaching schemes, he said according to a tentative plan discussed with the PSF, every city will have its own trainers who will be answerable to a chief coach.

“Outstanding trainers will also accompany the best teams in tournaments abroad. There will be performance based selection and our main aim should be grooming world champions and not part-time winners,” said Jansher.

He concluded by saying that his visit to Karachi was aimed at interacting with the media and to elaborate on the measures that the PSF hopes to put in place for the game's promotion in the next few months.