Players let down by squash federation

Squad preparing for Asian event with personal coaches.

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s four-member squash squad to take part in the Asian Junior Individual Championship has been preparing for the event without any help from the federation.

The Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) named Danish Atlas, Nasir Iqbal, Hamza Bokhari and Tayyab Ali to participate in the under-18 event that begins on June 21 in Jordan and features 150 other players from Asia.

Atlas, Pakistan’s number four, has been training with his father for the past two months as are the other players who have private coaches to help them train.

“The federation didn’t schedule a camp even though this is the biggest event before the Junior World Championships,” Danish told The Express Tribune. “I have been training for four hours a day with my father to make sure that I perform well and am selected for the World Championships.”

Danish added that although each player is training separately, the squad is a strong unit because all the players have performed well in local tournaments this year.

‘Parent coaches is a bad idea’

Former national coach Fahim Gul believes that the players cannot do well unless they are trained in camps while also opposing the idea of parents coaching their children.

“Parents can’t coach their children,” said Gul. “A parent will always overlook his child’s weaknesses. I feel that players like Nasir, Danish, Farhan Mehboob and Amir Atlas are not winning international events because they’re all being trained by their parents.”

Commenting on the Asian Junior Championship squad, Gul said that he trained each of the players during his four-year stint with PSF and feels that Nasir had the potential to be Pakistan’s next number one.





Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2011.