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In the previous section, I listed several misadventures by the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) that proved detrimental to both the players and the game of squash. This time I would like to mention something else.
In September 2011, the PSF banned three top squash players for poor performance at the World Men’s Team Squash Championship held in Germany where Pakistan finished 22nd.
Players Aamir Atlas Khan (Asian Games gold medalist and the country’s top player at the time), Yasir Butt, and Waqar Mehboob were loved while Nasir Iqbal was given a stern warning.
The players were banned in light of the team manager’s report as well as the video recording presented at the 32nd Executive Committee meeting.
The disciplinary committee interrogated the players and sought their feedback in a 7-8 hour session and concluded that the players had underperformed.
Therefore, Aamir was banned from participating in all national/international events for 2 years and from using any PSF playing facility in Pakistan and receiving financial support/sponsorship for international tournaments. was stopped. With the same provisions, Yasir Butt was banned for 1 year and Waqar Mehboob for 6 months.
In October, Yasir appealed against the ban, claiming that former secretary Irfan Asghar had not fulfilled his duties as manager and coach during the World Cup.
Asghar was later banned by the World Squash Federation (WSF) for making allegations against the then president of the WSF.
The PSF lifted the ban on Amir and Yasir during the 33rd executive committee meeting in 2012 after both the players apologized to the PSF president.
In 2012, the leading players of the country took a strong stand against the PSF and announced to leave the country. The players complained that they were not provided with international ranking events, better accommodation, food and daily allowance. This situation scared the federation officials and they had to appease the players.
In another futile bid, the PSF organized an educational program (in Grade-6 and Grade-8) for four junior players and placed them in a reputed educational institution/school. He was supposed to play squash under a PSF nominated coach.
But after just one year, the program failed and all four players had to drop out as they were not making any progress either academically or in squash.
In 2015, the country’s top players Aamir Atlas and Farhan Mehboob boycotted the trials of the 18th Asian Individual Championship as Farhan wanted an exemption from the trials and Aamir (and his brother Danish) wanted the coaching of Jamshed Gul.
Farhan claimed he was the country’s top player at the time and therefore deserved an exemption from the trials, but the federation said there was no criteria for national ranking selection.
Amir, who won the championship for the country after 14 years in 2014, refused to attend the trials and coaching camp because of Faheem Gul, who replaced Jamshed Gul as the national coach.
In the following years, the federation forced Ahsan Ayaz to participate in trials at the Asian-level championships, despite the fact that he was training at academies – first in Mexico and then in Barcelona.
Since Ahsan’s father was a PAF employee, he was pressured by the federation to the extent that they called Ahsan to appear in the trials and not return to the academies.
Ahsan had to follow the instructions of the federation otherwise he would not be allowed to participate in international events. This affected his career badly.
The same happened to Huzaifa Ibrahim, a finalist at the 2023 US Junior Open. The federation did not exempt him from the British Junior Open trials.
This angered Huzaifa’s guardian Jahanzeb Masood and criticized the Federation. “It’s a really sad day to witness such a poor performance. [of Pakistani contingent at BJO 2024].
Squash federations of other countries work hard to nurture their talent but we ignore our own talented players like Huzaifa Ibrahim.
“He was a finalist in the US Junior Squash Open but the Pakistan Squash Federation did not consider him for the BJO in the under-19 category as he could not attend the trials,” Jahanzeb said.
In another strange incident, a former PSF secretary slapped a player after losing a match at the British Junior Open a few years ago. This was a shock to the local squash community and the coaching staff at the BJO at the time.
However, the matter never got a chance to be taken up by the disciplinary or executive committee of the federation as it was done by a top official of the federation.
These PSF errors reflect the working pattern of the squash regulator. The present poor state of sports in the country owes its existence to this style.
