Onus on players to raise their game: Qamar Zaman

Squash great disappointed with present lot’s results at World Open

KARACHI: Former British Open champion Qamar Zaman believes no one other than the players themselves can revive Pakistan’s golden years in squash after none of the participants managed to get past the second round of the World Open being played in Doha, Qatar.

In more worrying prospects, only Nasir Iqbal reached the second round before being beaten by India’s Saurav Ghosal 3-1, while Aamir Atlas Khan, his brother Danish, Farhan Zaman and Farhan Mehboob crashed out after losing their first-round matches.

Qamar, who was also a runner-up in four World Open events, feels that the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) can only equip the players with elementary tools and then it was up to the individuals to improve their play by training hard.

“It’s embarrassing to see Pakistan players bow out of the World Open in initial stages,” Qamar told The Express Tribune. “All PSF can do is provide basic necessities and Professional Squash Association [PSA] events. At the end, it’s the players who need to come up with good results.

“The federation sponsored only those players who made it to the semi-finals of last month’s PSA tournament, but our players view such steps in a negative light instead of taking it as motivation to work harder. Until and unless they become serious and sincere to themselves, I doubt Pakistan squash can rise again.”

The 62-year-old legendary player further recalled that he and greats Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan never had coaches, but they possessed the will to train for longer periods of time, something that is missing in the present lot.

“The skills of our players aren’t inferior to anyone in the world. All they need is to train for four to five hours.

“If you look at the racquet skills of Mehboob, there are hardly any players who can match him in them, but he loses due to poorer fitness levels. If he becomes supremely fit, then there’s no reason why he can’t rank among the top players.

“Similarly, Aamir and Zaman have everything in their locker but they need to work hard on their fitness levels.”

 

 

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