Women in sports: Staying afoot in the service box

Sadia Gul does not let her competitive edge slip when it comes to squash

PESHAWAR:

She did not think of playing with dolls and plastic utensils as a child, what occupied her mind instead was a sport that is seldom an aspiration for girls.

At the tender age of 10 when Sadia Gul played squash for the first time, her vague dreams took a shape and from that point onwards she started investing all her efforts and energy in the tournaments she played nationally and internationally.

Once upon a time

Since she was so driven by sports, her father often took her to Qayyum Sports Stadium to let her see how sportspeople end up playing a perfect game after putting in hours of effort.

On one such evening, 10-year-old Gul went to the stadium with her father who was going to visit his friend and a squash legend of Pakistan, Qamar Zaman. Seeing Gul’s passion for the sport, Zaman told her father to let her play. She was given a racquet and left to deal with the ball, and she took up the challenge as it was a chance for her to move from the spectators’ stand to the court. She has not looked back since.



The young player’s life

The stadium she once went to as a visitor has become a second home for Gul who frequents the place for regular practice.

When asked why she chose squash to satisfy the sportswoman in her, she says she wants to revive the game that has faded into near oblivion after legends like Jehangir Khan and Jansher Khan left the courts. “They ruled the world of squash for nearly four decades and now that they are no longer playing, no one has come forward to keep the game alive in the country,” she tells The Express Tribune at Qayyum Stadium. Her eyes gleam as she expresses how she wants to bring squash back into the mainstream, and do so by becoming the first ever woman legend in the world of squash from Pakistan.

Today, 19-year-old Gul does not only play the game within the country, but in the past few years her hard work has taken her to places around the globe. She has been named one of the 50 most powerful women in Pakistan in a recent poll held by a local newspaper, her father Sher Khitab tells The Express Tribune with pride.

However, the passion for squash has not resulted in her brushing aside the importance of education. Presently, Gul is doing FA and to keep herself connected with the academic side of the sport, she has opted for courses such as health and physical studies and home economics.

Smooth sailing

Gul was born in Bannu — a place where a woman wandering outside the premises of the house is a sight seldom seen— but her family later moved to Peshawar when she was four years old. The stringent rules in her native town never affected her career as a sportsperson as her parents and brothers did not let that happen.

Her parents, she says, supported her dream ever since she told them about it and her brothers too never disapproved of her choice of spending hours practising in the court instead of staying at home and learning household chores. “My brother drove me here (to the stadium), they always encourage me,” says Gul.

However, she finds the government’s disinterest in sports promotion disappointing. “I wish the government supports me more so I make a name for the country yet again in squash.” Nevertheless, she adds, the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited has supported her by sponsoring her tours abroad and within the country for various tournaments she is usually occupied with.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.