ISLAMABAD -The recent poor show of Pakistan at two international squash events including Asian Senior Squash Championship and Commonwealth Games showed that future of the game in Pakistan is quite bleak.
Pakistan Squash Federation despite almost a month passed has never bothered to conduct inquiry for pathetic performance of Pakistan team in the Asian Senior Team Squash Championship held in Korea. Despite the fact, India and Kuwait were missing and other countries had sent junior teams with the only exception of Hong Kong, Pakistani players failed to live up to the expectations whereas worst results had been witnessed in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, where Pakistani players highly poor showing was more than to open the eyes of the federation. But no one moved and federation is allowed to carry on with their self-styled policies. The federation has failed to devise a criteria when it comes to players selection to represent country or for Pakistan National Squash Academy.
The last Asian Games report is still to be made public and despite the fact number of dubious things had been reported and players were blamed for underperforming but no action had been taken. Ever since present secretary and SVP had taken over the reins of the federation, things have gone from bad to worse. National coach Fahim Gul was fired citing poor results but interestingly all others who were equally responsible are still enjoying all the benefits. Non-technical persons are being sent with the top national players rather than sending proper coaches.
Personal liking and disliking are at its peak. Former world number 14 and Pakistan’s top player Farhan Mehboob was barred from training at Mushaf Squash Courts as he was not acceptable to PNSA director, who had his own way of handling with things. The gentlemen has been witnessed so many times smoking during the PSA tournaments and abusing players but no one dares to ask who had given him the authority to misbehave with national champion.
Female squash is almost dead in Pakistan as hardly a handful of female players are left while federation is just making tall claims and have no vision at all. Not a single qualified coach is available to federation and they are wasting national wealth on Muhamamd Yasin and other unknown coaches, who had no experience of producing top class players. Now Asian Games are just round the corner but federation is sleeping. This time too sending team without top players including Farhan Mehboob would again yield the worst results. Aamir Atlas, Danish Atlas and Farhan Mehboob are all available and federation must not waste time and should invite them to stand realistic chances of doing well in the Asian Games.