ISLAMABAD - Pakistan squash team has to defend its Asian Senior Team Squash Championship title without Aamir Atlas Khan who decides to skip trial matches for selection of senior team here at Mushaf Ali Mir Squash Complex.
The Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) was left with only five players to conduct trial matches and select four out of them for the mega event, as Sh Saqib, Tayyab Aslam and Ammad Fareed instead of appearing in the training camp and play trial matches, opted to play in South Africa, while Mansoor Zaman also decided not to attend trial matches and Aamir decided to take rest from competitive action for at least three months to regain complete match fitness.
After two days of trial matches, the scene is pretty much clear. Nasir Iqbal is comfortably occupying No 1 spot while Farhan Zaman, Farhan Mehboob and Danish Atlas sitting at No 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Saturday’s matches will confirm the fourth place which either goes in favour of Danish or Ali Bokhari.
The current situation is just because of the federation’s lenient behaviour with the players who any time prefers their personal interests to the national interests. If the situation remains the same, there will be no hope for the country and the PSF to fulfill their dream of regaining the lost squash glory. The federation must chalk out a comprehensive strategy and bound players to put country ahead over personal interests.
Pakistan must take Asian team event seriously, as after a long gap, Pakistani players have managed to win that title, but under prevailing circumstances, it looks highly unlikely the team will be able to defend the title.
On Saturday, four matches were played. In the first match of the day, Nasir Iqbal beat seasoned campaigner Farhan Mehboob 3-0 as the score was 11-9, 14-12, 11-3. In the second match, Danish Atlas beat Ali Bokhari 3-1; 11-7, 11-7, 12-10, 11-1. In the third match, Farhan Mehboob beat Farhan Zaman 3-2 as the score was 12-10, 11-5, 11-5, 11-9, 11-6 while in the fourth and last match of the day, Nasir Iqbal beat Danish Atlas 3-0; 11-6, 11-6, 11-5.