For a good 15 years, Pakistan has been off the leading nations' list in world squash. Despite that, its fifth successive attempt to regain the individual Asian crown turned out to be disappointing.
Pakistan's no. 1, Aamir Atlas Khan, suffered defeat against Malaysia's Mohammad Azlan Iskander who retained the title in the recently concluded 15th Asian Senior Championships at the Indian port city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras.
After losing the closely-fought first game at 8-11, the second at 4-11 and 0-3 down in the third game, third seeded Aamir Atlas Khan retired hurt and top seed Azlan Iskander was the Asian champion for the second time in a row.
According to team sources, Azlan played his game on a tremendously fast pace and his strategy worked well for he had Aamir completely exhausted by the second game. When Aamir realised that there was no way he could turn things around against the Malaysian, he gave up. Aamir was on the court for 30 minutes flat.
After the defeat of brother Waqar Mahboob, fifth seeded Farhan Mahboob also performed poorly against India's fourth seed, Saurav Ghosal who virtually outplayed his challenger by registering a convincing 11-7, 11-1, 11-6 win on his way to the semi finals, where he was beaten in successive games by Azlan.
However, sixth seeded Yasir Ali Butt gave a commendable performance when he recovered to cause a major upset by defeating second seeded Ong Beng Hee, the four-time Asian champion from Malaysia, 10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9. Yasir, the former runner-up of the World Junior Championship, reached the semi finals and faced his fellow team mate Aamir Atlas who was through to the final 11-6, 11-7, 11-0.
Pakistan's no. 1 Maria Toor Pakay also competed in the Women Individual Championship and was defeated in the first round. The team event followed after the conclusion of the Individual Championship and Aamir Atlas avenged his defeat by beating Azlan Iskandar in straight games in the second match of the final, after Yasir Ali Butt won the opening match by 3-1 against Nafiizwan Adnan.
In the end, Pakistan, the 11-time team champions, who for the first time in the 29-year Asian squash history, failed to reach the finals and finished third in 2008 Kuwait Tournament, gave an improved show to defeat defending champions Malaysia by 2-0 to recapture the trophy of the 12-nation championship.
However, there had been no match for the third place and both beaten finalists — hosts India and Kuwait — were awarded bronze medals. Giving bronze medals to the two teams without playing a dead rubber is considered a violation of tournament rules, as previously, bronze medals were awarded only to winners of third place match.
The Asian Squash Federation did no good to itself by violating rules of the competition, which is why it is about time that the World Squash Federation takes notice of the violation by the ASF, which is an affiliated body, as this is a serious issue.
Pakistan, once a recognised name in world squash as well as one of Asia's leading nations, has failed to earn the Asian squash crown for the past 10 years. This not only shows our declining and deteriorating standards, but also highlights how even at regional level there seems to be no hope to regain our lost world glories.
Despite all its efforts, the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has not been able to live up to any expectations and has failed to produce good quality, trained world class players. Moreover, the new generation of national players that have followed the two legendary Khans — Jahangir and Jansher — lack professional commitment and cannot handle hard work.
Group politics is only making matters worse for the game with the result being a constant decline in standards as far as world squash is concerned. The players after reaching a certain benchmark do not commit themselves to the required seven to eight hour strenuous training, that prepares them for international victories.
Today Pakistan has no major title under its belt, which comes as a shock to all and sundry, for there was a time that we ruled the world of international squash.
The PSF has to act, and act immediately and effectively, to ensure that national funds are not wasted on players who either don't have the talent or the will and determination to make their nation and its people proud.
