After an eight-year break, Pakistan won the World Squash Junior Championship last week in Poland. Israr Ahmad, one of the members of the conquering Pakistan team, returned to his native city Lahore soon after landing in Islamabad because his department Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited wanted to honour him for making the country proud.

The SNGPL held a special ceremony where Israr was honoured with a cash prize of Rs500,000, indeed a nice gesture.

Hopefully, the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and its Punjab chapter will also honour the achievement of the Pakistan squash team. Such players richly deserve the full support of private and government sectors. Pakistan snatched the world title from Egypt winning the final 2-1.

Although Israr belongs to a poor family, his passion for the sport helps earn a good name for the country.

He won the final against Egypt’s Saadeldin Abouaish, who had defeated Israr in the individual event of the same tournament.

His father Matloob Hussain, who also attended the SNGPL ceremony, said since Israr always took the game of squash seriously, he (father) also supported him despite having limited resources.

Mr Hussain said he had been regularly giving coaching and training at the Punjab Squash Association courts. He said the hard work of his son finally brought a success for the country.

Israr said his initial target was to come in the top 10 players of the world’s senior ranking.

SNGPL head Amjad Lateef assured Israr that the department would fully support him to achieve his target.

After the retirement of legendary world class squash player Jansher Khan in 2002, Pakistan lost all the world titles. Though Pakistan won the junior title, the achievement at the senior level is still far away and a lot of hard work and resources are required to dominate the world of squash.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has finally decided to hold a training camp of the senior team for the preparation of the Asian Champions Trophy to be played in Lahore instead of Islamabad from next week.

The incumbent PHF officials, since coming at the helm some 18 months back, have been trying to hold the championship at the Naseer Bunda Stadium, Islamabad, which is considered a hub of senior team activities. Pakistan has to field its team as defending champion in the Asian contest to be held in Malaysia in October this year. It will be the fourth edition of the Champions Trophy.

Pakistan have won the last two editions held in 2012 and 2013 while the first one was won by another Asian hockey giant, India, in 2011.

It is being held after the lapse of three years. The game of hockey is also passing through a lean period like other sports in the country.

A win in the upcoming edition will be quite encouraging for hockey in Pakistan as chances of qualifying for the next World Cup-2018 will become brighter. Former Olympian Khawaja Junaid will coach the players in the camp.

Country’s top-seeded badminton players were in Lahore last week, competing in the All-Pakistan National Ranking Badminton Tournament. The venue was the newly-built beautiful hall of the Nishtar Sports Complex. But the standard of competitions was not impressive as even finals of all four events proved one-sided affairs.

Without a good number of sporting activities it will not be possible to produce players who could earn some respectable ranking at the international level.

PBF secretary Wajid Ali, who remained a national champion for more than 12 years and had represented Pakistan at international events till 2010, admitted lack of badminton activities.

He said the major reasons for the decline in the game were the shortage of funds and dearth of sponsorship.

He said the talent in every sport was being wasted due to the apathy of private and government sectors.

Meanwhile, Hafiz Irfan Saeed (Wapda) won the men’s singles title, Palwasha Bashir (NBP) crowned with the women’s singles title. Irfan and Azeem Sarwar won the men’s doubles title. Palwasha and Saima Waqas won the women’s doubles title.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2016