Its not that the International Olympics committee is principally averse to the notion, the details are such that there are limited spots available for new games; Squash competes against rugby, golf and karate (and eight others). According to the WSF report on the recent 'no' at Copenhagen, squash was not even considered for inclusion in 2016. Which is confusing, considering the history of the game and the level of international play one wonders, why isn't it already in the Olympics?

'Rackets' as the game was initially called, and still is in some circles, has a history of institutionalised competition almost a century old. With 174 national portfolios registered with the WSF, the uniformity of the rules and styles of play was one concern which is no more. The WSF manages the rules and regulations of play, training and competitive events. Rigorous IOC scrutiny seems like a breeze, but apparently Olympic status lies outside the destiny of the game. The World Open will have to do till then, life goes on.

In Pakistan, however, circumstances are much more critical. To the world, which found the absolute power of the Khan dynasty ever since Hashim Khan too hot to handle and too enigmatic to explain, our dwindling stature in squash has been nothing but a matter of time accompanied by a sigh of relief. But as Pakistanis, the ingenuity of the local sports boards and politics in devising ways to not do well means that once alone on the victory stand, we are now nowhere to be found in cricket, squash or hockey. What explains this spontaneous combustion?

Countries like Egypt and France, without much squash history have quickly risen to the top. Pakistan on the other hand finds it hard to beat even the underdogs nowadays. The grapevine is saturated with talk about the vanishing glory of our past, and the brazen politics and corruption of the PSF which fails to accord even a minimum level of respect to heroes such as Jansher Khan, who has been banned from playing in a local squash facility in Peshawar.

Instead of harnessing the world beating talents of these legends, the post of PSF secretary is a bureaucratic position, which enjoys 'holidays' (as Jansher rightly calls them) on the PSF budgets and nothing else. Whereas Egypt has developed a world class training facility, the training facilities here are decrepit and redundant. Their professionalism and dedication has paid off, as today Egypt holds three of the top four spots on the men's professional circuit, and it definitely looks like there's more to come. When the last Khan squash king, Jansher, retired in 1998 there was, and still is, no one to carry the standard. It has been nothing but downhill this last decade, highlighting the need for proper institutions run by professionals and people experienced in international squash, not politics.

Its not just squash, almost every other sport we play today bear no good news. This generation of players has been blighted by the institutions and lack of character development, which is pivotal for 'great' players; but the next generation, has no role-models to boot. While American clubs jumped at the opportunity to have a legend such as Hashim Khan stay on and help them out, his real tribe in Pakistan couldn't care less. The laws of gravity state that without any unbalanced force acting upwards, the ride down is inevitable. Weight at the top just adds to the fall. So while the WSF is lamenting the Olympics failure, we lament the creativity of the PSF at halting the juggernaut that Pakistani squash once was.