Defending champions Pakistan fared badly in the recently concluded 24-nation Junior (under-19) World Squash Championship in Quito, Ecuador. Second seeded Pakistan lost to top seed Egypt by 1-2 in the team final.

They not only surrendered the team trophy to last time's runners-up Egypt but even the individual performances remained unimpressive. Farhan Zaman was beaten by Egyptian Marwan El Shorbagy by 1-3 in the play-off for bronze and finished fourth.

When Pakistan were 1-1 against Egypt in the team final, Farhan faced bronze medalist Marwan El Shorbagy 17, (younger brother of twice junior world champion Mohamed El Shorbagy) in the decider and again suffered a 1-3 defeat. Earlier, the new champion Amr Khaled Khalifa, the Egyptian number one outplayed Pakistan's number one Danish Atlas in three straight games in the first match.

However, number three Nasir 1qbal gave a commendable performance winning the closely fought second match by 3-2 against Egyptian number three Ali Farag but Farhan Zaman's failure against Egyptian number two Marwan El Shorbagy resulted in Egypt's victory. It was the fourth team victory since 1994 when internationally renowned Ahmed Barada emerged as the first Egyptian junior world champion and his country won the team title for the first time.

It was the beginning of a new era of squash in Egypt. The Egyptian Squash Federation took the game to educational institutions which play the role of a nursery for producing world class players, a factor neglected in Pakistan for a considerably long time. Egypt has an imposing record of producing no less than six junior world champions in 16 years which includes Ahmed Barada 1994, Ahmed Faizy 1996, Karim Darwish 2000, Ramy Ashour 2004 and 2006, Mohamed El Shorbagy 2008 and 2009 and Amr Khaled Khalifa 2010, also winning the team trophy four.

It is an unprecedented individual championship record established in Egypt in the 30-year history of junior championships which began in Sweden in 1980. Egypt has another unique honour as both Ramy Ashour and Mohamed El Shorbagy have twice won individual titles.

Ramy Ashour, Amr Shabana and Karim Darwish are world class performers and Egypt has emerged as one of the leading nations in world squash both at senior and junior levels.

Pakistan has produced only two junior world champions. Sohail Qaiser won the individual championship in 1982 and lifted the team trophy. After a passage of 28 years, we have not yet been able to repeat the 1982 performance although Pakistan remained a dominating force in world squash at the senior level through two legendary Khans, Jahangir and Jansher in the '80s and early '90s.

Jahangir did not compete in the juniors' world championship after becoming the youngest ever world amateur champion at 15 and the youngest player at 17 to become the world champion followed by victories in major tournaments.

Jansher Khan became the second Pakistani to win the world junior title for the country but after that Pakistan continued to compete without any success in the individual and team events.

As the president of the Pakistan Squash Federation, the late Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir had appointed Rehmat Khan to train youngsters. Khan had earlier polished his cousin Jahangir Khan into one of the greatest players in the world of squash. Pakistan regained the juniors' team title after a lapse of 20 years in the 2002 championship held in Chennai.

Two years later Pakistan retained the team trophy in the Junior World Championship held for the first time in Islamabad. Yasir Butt entered the final and lost to Egyptian Ramy Ashour.

The PSF should arrange a junior team tour of Egypt for a five-match series as no foreign team is willing to come to Pakistan due to security concerns. The tour would help to assess the potential of our youngsters and the popularity of the game in Egyptian educational institutions.

Pakistan's performance in individual championships preceded by the team event left much to be desired. Only Farhan Zaman reached the semi-final. Egypt showed its total domination in the individual champions winning gold, silver and bronze medals.

In the all-Egyptian final, Amr Khaled Khalifia became the new world champion with a 3-2 victory over Ali Farag, while Marwan El Shorbagy bagged bronze by defeating Farhan Zaman in the play-off. Egypt recaptured the team title by defeating Pakistan in the final.

Final standing in team event in descending order Egypt, Pakistan, Canada, England, India, New Zealand, France, Germany, Australia, Mexico,Wales, USA, South Korea, Colombia, Netherlands, Venezuela, South Africa, Ireland, Japan, Ecuador, Kuwait, Guatemala, Brazil, Cayman Islands.