ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s last hope Haris Qasim was thrashed 0-3 by Egyptian Yahia Elnawasany in the U-17 category semifinals of the Dunlop British Junior Squash Championship 2019 in Birmingham on late Saturday night.

Haris couldn’t pose serious threat to Yahia, who looked supremely dominant and was toying with out-of-sort Haris. It took just 21 minutes to Yahia to hammer Haris and grab a place in the U-17 final. The first game started with Yahia gradually taking control of the game and taking it 11-4. The second game was once again classic example of the Egyptian’s power and authority, who bagged the second game 11-2 and he was in sublime form in the third game, which he 11-5 to register an impressive victory.

The bashing of Pakistani players at this event brought down to earth all the tall claims made by Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) regarding over-the-moon training of the youngsters at Pakistan National Squash Academy (PNSA) Islamabad under world’s top coaches. The federation sent an army of officials and coaches with the players almost two weeks early to England, but it had more to do with perks and privileges than the training.

For the last four years and so, the federation is not in a mood to appoint a full-fledge national coach and using part-timers to get the best results, which is almost impossible. The federation is unmoved and they present completely other side of the picture to PSF President, rather than showing the PSA results.

The PSF provides non-ranking and C class tournaments to Pakistani players at unknown places like Qatar, Jordan and Asian some countries but when they play PSA event, they are badly exposed. Pakistani players rankings are more than enough to show that the federation badly lacks direction and vision as not a single Pakistani player are able to move into top 40 nor a single Pak player managed to win a major or even ordinary tournament.

If these players couldn’t go beyond third or fourth rounds of British Junior Squash, how would they be able to win major PSA tournaments? It is requested to the PSF chief to seek complete report from the federation and order an inquiry into last three years results, how much finances were spent on the players, coaches and camps and how many people were given TA/DAs and international tours.

Unless the PSF president doesn’t take drastic steps and doesn’t show the doors to these used bullets, there is every possibility that Pakistani players will suffer more and more in PSA tournaments and they will never be able to break into elite group of players, like the great Jahangir, Jansher and Qamar Zaman used to be. The former players have also requested the PSF President o take action and appoint a highly-qualified coach, who may steady sinking ship of Pakistan squash and help the federation regain lost squash glory.