PSF aims to squash out future poor performances

Investigation into humiliating Asiad campaign begins

KARACHI: The Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) is all set to launch an internal investigation into Pakistan’s dreadful performance at the Asian Games, where they failed to even qualify for the semi-finals.

Pakistan had gone into the continental event as the defending champions and were top-seed as well, while Kuwait – the team that knocked them out – were seeded fourth.

The Pakistan team that included Nasir Iqbal, Farhan Zaman, Danish Atlas Khan and Farhan Mehboob could win only two matches out of the four in their Pool A, with the wins coming against minnows Qatar and hosts Korea, while they were defeated 2-1 by both Hong Kong and Kuwait.

The PSF has decided to take strict action against the players after it emerged that some of them failed to display professional and national spirit, especially against Kuwait.

According to the reports, Mehboob refused to play against Kuwait, citing a headache as the reason, despite repeated requests from coach Jamshed Gul and manager Rana Tariq. Danish was then named instead of Mehboob, who went on to lose against Ali Bader Al-Ramzi; a player 200 places below him in the Professional Squash Association rankings.

“The PSF is waiting for the coach’s and manager’s reports because we’re livid with the shameful exit of Pakistan from the Asian Games,” a senior PSF official told The Express Tribune. “It is beyond our imagination that a set of players who used to dominate Asian events can lose in such a manner, and that too against weaker oppositions.”

The official then went on to reveal the main subjects of the investigation. “We’ll investigate two important things; first, the refusal of Mehboob to play against Kuwait and second, Danish’s loss against such a low-ranked player because he had been in tremendous form going into the event.”

The federation has been angered by the players’ attitude in an event where Pakistan could only get one gold medal, courtesy of the women’s cricket team.

Even the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) officials have taken notice of the issue and have asked the PSF to investigate the matter and punish any player found to be guilty of not giving his best. “The IPC is also keen to get down to the root cause of how squash failed to deliver a medal, and we’ve been requested to investigate the matter properly,” the official added. “We won’t tolerate such bad behaviour and the lack of professionalism from our players. If any player is found guilty, he’ll be punished strictly to ensure that such things don’t happen in the future as they are a source of embarrassment for the country.”