ISLAMABAD -  M Ammad and M Hamza Khan Friday made it to the U-13 category quarterfinals of the British Junior Squash Championship 2018 while all the other Pak players bowed out of the event, which is being played in Birmingham, England.

In U-13 category pre-quarterfinals, Ammad beat Jack O Flynn of Ireland 11-5, 11-8, 11-3 while M Hamza Khan beat Arnav Tevatia of India 11-3, 11-2, 11-8. Ammad will now play against Islam Kouratam of Egypt while Hamza will take on Omar Azam of Egypt in the quarterfinals.

In U-15 category third round, M Ashab Irfan lost to Franklyn Smith of England 11-3, 6-11, 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, Asad Ullah Khan defeated Leo Fatialofa of New Zealand 11-4, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, but he lost the fourth round match against Ahmed Marzouk of Egypt 5-11, 8-11, 9-11.

In U-17 category third round, M Farhan Hashmi lost to Duncan Yung Yij Lee of Malaysia 7-11, 6-11, 9-11 while in U-19 third round, Abdul Malik lost to Tom Walsh of England 11-8, 2-11, 5-11, 4-11 and M Uzair Rasheed lost to Shady Elsherbeeny of Egypt 6-11, 5-11, 7-11. Only Mansoor Zaman defeated Vojtech Ryba of Czech Republic in third round 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 but he lost the fourth round match against England’s Tom Walsh 7-11, 7-11, 10-12.

It was really a dismal show by the players, who were trained at Pakistan National Squash Academy (PNSA), as they all were thrown out of the event with exception of Ammad and Hamza. After such pathetic results, the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) must change their current policy of passing on benefits to certain individuals and hire professional coaches and trainers to produce better results.

Now in third year, the PNSA has been a super flop. Winning in Malaysia and Qatar is completely different than winning high-ranked tournaments, where big squash playing nation compete. The PNSA is a white elephant and has been consuming so much funds without even providing ordinary results.

The PSF president must seek explanation from those, who are responsible for this debacle and take stern action against them. The question arises here that why and on what grounds the PNSA director has been given so much liberty and why no action is being taken against him, who has zero knowledge of squash? Why athletics trainers are being used to train squash players, why non-qualified coaches are being preferred over full-time professional coaches?

Pakistan is blessed with top class coaches, who had proven their mettle and had changed the fortunes of Pakistan teams and players by utilizing their wide international experience and modern-day techniques and skills. If given free hand to coaches like Jamshed Gul and Faheem Gul, they are more than capable of produce wonders for Pakistan squash. They had already won international medals for the country and still keen to change the declining fortunes of Pakistan squash.

The inner politics of the PSF and persons like Razi Nawab and Amir Nawaz had destroyed Pakistan squash. They had inflicted huge damages on squash, but no one is ready to take action against them. Why and on what grounds Jamshed’s contract was not renewed, when he was producing very good results? It is worth mentioning here that since Jamshed had been removed, Pakistan squash has been going down with each passing day. Fahim Gul though coaching the team but he was never given free hand to work according to his abilities.

Unless, the PSF top brass stops interfering in coach’s matters and keeps pushing their blue-eyed ones, Pakistan squash is bound to doom further. It is high time when the PSF president must take action and the SVP must hire Jamshed Gul as head coach without wasting a single day, as if it comes to national interest, Jamshed will prefer Pakistan to USA and loads of money he has been earning there.