ISLAMABAD - Asim Khan moved into the quarterfinals of the $5000 Malaysian Tour-II 2018, after brushing aside compatriot Syed Ali Mujtaba Bokhari 3-1 in the second round match played Thursday.
Asim played well against Ali Bokahri and outlasted him 3-1. Asim won the first game 11-3 but lost the second 10-12, before winning the third 14-12 and fourth 11-8. Earlier in the first round, Asim beat Korean Chang Wook 3-1, as score was 10-12, 11-7, 11-5, 11-5. Ali won first round match against Malaysian Adeen Adraki 3-2 (11-7, 5-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9).
In the females category, Pakistan No 1 female player Sadia Gul lost against Malaysian Chan Yiwen 1-3 in the first round. The Malaysian won the encounter against Pakistani by 6-11, 2-11, 7-11. It is quite worrying sign for Pakistan No 1 Sadia Gul, who is not producing even ordinary results at international level. The PSF had promised to provide equal opportunities to female players and to invite them for training camps, but nothing was done practically in this regard.
The PSF never bothered to inform about a simple fact that on what grounds and qualification, they had given Pakistan National Squash Academy director post to Air Commodore (r) Aftab Saddiq Qureshi, how many players the academy had produced and what are their results? It is quite strange that the PSF doesn’t know that keeping senior players at Islamabad-based PNSA makes no sense. They must understand they have to work on juniors. They don’t have proper trainers rather they are using athletics’ coaches for training purposes, which is resulting in injuries to major players. The time is high when the federation must work on appointing a full-time national coach, rather than going for a foreign coach. They must explore local options, as Pakistan is blessed with so many greats, who can easily resolve Pakistan squash woes and can help the country in producing champions.
There is no need of continuing with a non-professional as PNSA director. The federation must adjust this person somewhere else, as already the players have made too many complaints against him and legends also speak openly about his inability to perform the job, as he doesn’t know the ABC of squash.
The federation must not try to hide actual ground-based realities from the masses, rather than winning $5000 and low prize tournaments. Top players, who have represented the country in world team and other major tournaments, should at least play in $25,000, as it will not only help them improve their PSA rankings but also provide them with opportunities to play against the top players, or else they will continue to bow out at first or qualifying rounds of the major events.
When this scribe contacted PSF secretary Group Captain Tahir Sultan to seek his point of view in this regard, he said: “Asim has been playing since long, but he is not winning anything. He won $10,000 event in Iran last month and last week, he won $5000 event in Malaysia. It gave him lot of confidence, while we are planning on major changes, which will be in forced with the passage of time, we want players to gain experience as much as they can,” Tahir concluded.