Islamabad-Pakistan’s one of the most successful squash coaches and international-famed referee Mehboob Khan has offered his services to Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) to groom fresh players for the country.

Mehboob, who is father of three world class players Farhan Mehboob, Waqar Mehboob and Waqas Mehboob, is 8-time world squash champion and 6-time British open champion and was Jansher Khan’s coach from 1983 to 1996. In an interview with The Nation, he said: “I have played squash at top level and reached the second round of the world open, before I quit playing this game and started coaching Jansher Khan to help him become a true champion.

“I had witnessed very high and low of Pakistan squash. There was a time when great Jansher ruled the squash world and remained world number 1 for a record period of 10 years and 11 months. It was arguably the high time of Pakistan squash, as nobody could even think about squash without Pakistan,” he added.

He has said that the players of current era are fortunate that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is running the affairs of the federation and they have a very fond lover of squash in shape of Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, who is also PSF president. “The PSF has been investing heavily on the players, unlike of Jahangir, Jansher and before them Qamar Zaman and other world champions, who achieved the distinctions without a single penny help. Only PIA was lending a helping hand to those greats. After Air Marshal Noor Khan (late), I had witnessed present president Sohail Aman has been taking extra interest in squash, and due to his sincere efforts, Pakistan squash has started flourishing.”

He said he must admit that gone were those days when the players used to train 8 hours daily and had the passion of winning for the country. “Now a days, the players don’t bother to spend much time in the courts, instead they waste their time on mobile phones and other unhealthy activities. They are blessed to have such freedom and the federation is taking very good care of them. If they spend more time and do dedicated training only for 4 hours, it will be more than enough to get desired results.”

 Mehboob said: “Squash is in our family blood and we have given countless champions to Pakistan. I have 4 sons and all of them are serving the country. My elder son Farhan Mehboob has won 5 asian senior team championship titles, besides winning a number of international titles and was former world number 14 and also won British Open U-15 and U-17 titles. Waqar Mehboob, the younger one, won U-13 and U-15 British Open titles and my student Safeer Ullah, at PAF Squash Academy where I coach, won the British Open U-19 title after a long gap of 22 years. I served PAF Squash Academy for five years and during that era, I helped a number of players win laurels both at national and international levels.

“My services like past are always available to the PSF. I am capable of producing world champions and if given chance by the PSF, I will take junior players at Peshawar or at Islamabad, and try to transform them into champions. There is no dearth of talent in Pakistan but the dire need of the hour to hunt that fresh talent and groom them well so that they may be world champions in the time to come. While there is also need of training and polishing the current lot, as by doing so, we can get better results at international level ,” Mehboob concluded.