PAKISTAN’S emphatic victory in the Asian Individual Squash Championship on Sunday has rekindled hopes of a revival of the country’s fortunes in the sport. It marked an end to Pakistan’s 14-year title drought in the high-profile Asian event. Aamir Atlas Khan’s brilliant win in the final against Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Muzayne as that of Farhan Mahboob over top-ranked Malaysian Ong Beng Hee before him has brought much joy to squash aficionados besides highlighting the fact that the cupboard is not totally bare as far as the talent and skills of our players are concerned. For a country that so ruthlessly dominated squash for over three decades — from the early ’70s to the late ’90s — and produced illustrious players such as Jahangir Khan, Jansher Khan, Qamar Zaman and Gogi Alauddin, the slump in the game’s standards had been shocking, to say the least.

Many of the leading critics and experts of the sport have expressed their surprise over Pakistan’s failure to utilise the services of its former players to reinvent the game and to groom a generation of exciting players who can meet international challenges. However, those who follow the game closely would vouch for the fact that, more than anything else, it has been a battle of egos that has brought about the downward spiral of squash. The greats of the game as well as its officials have been too obsessed with running each other down rather than focusing their energies on raising standards while Pakistan squash has taken a beating amidst serious charges of fixing and nepotism. One sincerely hopes that the Asian title win puts an end to the various troubles afflicting the sport and paves the way for a bright future for squash in Pakistan.