ISLAMABAD -
Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) secretary Abdul Wahab Marwat has categorically said only those players will be selected for the national squad for the World Squash Team Championship who would turn up for trial matches today (Tuesday).
Talking to this scribe, Marwat said: “No one including Aamir Atlas Khan will be exempted from the trials as decided by the executive committee meeting on May 6.” When this scribe told Marwat that Aamir was advised by the doctor not to underwent training which could aggravate groin injury, he replied: “Aamir has to turn up for the trials, otherwise, he will be left out from the squad and team will be selected on performance base.”
When contacted Aamir Atlas to seek his comments on the situation, he said: “I want to serve country for a longer period and I have requested the federation that doctor has clearly advised me in to avoid full training, but it seems the federation doesn’t want me to regain full fitness. Now it’s up to the federation whether they want me to represent the country in the event or not. I will fully abide by the doctor’s advice and I am ready to play against any given opponent. I am not afraid of any player but I need some time to fully recover. I will appear in the trial matches but later at an appropriate time,” Aamir added.
The sources have also confirmed that the PSF had applied for only six players’ French visas so far in which Tayyab Aslam and Mansoor Zaman’s names are missing while Aamir, Farhan Mahboob, Farhan Zaman, Nasir Iqbal, Danish Atlas and Sh Saqib’s are included. The federation is looking clearly confused as at one stage they want to hold trial matches between eight players, but applied visas of only six players. So it is clear that the federation is in no mood to use common sense and want to continue teasing the players. By doing so, they are making it almost impossible for the players in general and head coach Jamshed Gul in particular to have even an outside chance of lifting this coveted trophy, which Pakistan has failed to win since long as last time Pakistan won it in way back in 1993 in the presence of great Jahangir Khan, Jansher Khan, Zarak Khan and Mir Zaman.
There is something fishy in the entire saga and it seems the federation is not happy at all with the contributions made by Jamshed Gul in a very short span of time and they want to get rid of him. By selecting weak team, it is very much likely it will bow out in the opening round which will give the federation a chance to settle the score with Jamshed and they will make the reason of poor showing to show the door to Jamshed. It will be a real disaster for the future of Pakistan squash as Jamshed transformed these players into one of the best in the business and taught them a very simple lesson of adopting winning mentality. Instead of securing Jamshed’s services for a longer period of time, like past just because of some quarters, who had the habit of getting against the coaches, the PSF is playing into these forces’ hands and looks all set to deprive country of one of the best international coaches of the world. It will not hurt at all to Jamshed as he has some better offers but it will certainly ends the hopes of Pakistan players winning the PSA events in future. – Mohsin Ali