Asian Squash Championship test awaits Pakistan

Tournament trophy up for grabs in the absence of defending champ Amir

KARACHI: The last Asian Individual Championship was held exactly two years ago in Pakistan, with the Midas touch of Amir Atlas Khan and head coach Jasmhed Gul helping Pakistan deliver their first Asian champion in 15 years. Fast-forward two years, both of them would be missing from the upcoming continental championship in Kuwait.

It was Jamshed who worked tirelessly with all the players for almost two months before the Asian Championship began in Islamabad, and his efforts paid dividends as Amir was able to overcome injury and illness to conquer Kuwait’s Abdullah alMuzayen in the final.

Apart from Amir, Farhan Mehboob was also exceptional at that championship and was only knocked out after a controversial semi-final loss, and he too will not be a part of the Pakistani contingent this year.

Despite helping Pakistan win titles at the Asian level in all categories, Jamshed was sidelined due to the internal politics of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF), while both Amir and Farhan have not gotten on well with the federation due to their personal issues and attitude.

Pakistan’s hopes will rest on youngsters Nasir Iqbal, Farhan Zaman, Amir’s brother Danish and Tayyab Aslam for the 2015 championship.

“Pakistan has a young squad, but I’m confident that my players will do well at the Asian Championship,” an optimistic PSF secretary Amir Nawaz told The Express Tribune. “We held two PSA tournaments right before the Asian event so that the players can get competitive match practice under their belts. We wanted the seniors to appear in trials, but they were not ready to become a part of the process, so the PSF decided to move on.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s highest-ranked player Nasir said his title hopes depend on his performance against India’s Saurav Ghosal, who he may meet in the quarter-finals. “I’ve set my sights on beating Saurav, he is my ticket to the title,” said Nasir.

The championship is a test not only for the players but for the PSF as well, since the results would either vindicate or disprove their decision to snub Jamshed and the two senior players.

With their Annual General Meeting scheduled to be held on Thursday, there will be plenty of deliberation on whether to bring back Jamshed as, without him, Pakistan squash has been unable to achieve anything significant so far.



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