PSF’s junior support policy paying dividends

Finally there is a ray of hope for Pakistan squash future as young guns ran away with all but one title in the boys’ category of the Asian Junior Championship that concluded in Chennai (India) last week.

In recent past we have never seen such a dominant performance at the Asian level by our juniors. So to say that Pakistan Squash Federation’s (PSF) newly adopted policy to invest more in youngsters is working wonders would be no exaggeration.

Over the years the PSF was seen more banking on tried and tested lot with results never been so consistent especially when it comes to playing abroad. Hardly we have seen even the best of senior or experienced player winning the $25,000 event on the foreign soil.

Only a few performances at home that too after investing heavy amount in organising such events. Two of the best players Aamir Atlas and Nasir Iqbal met their Waterloo for one reason or the other during the past few years. The other talented squash player Farhan Mehboob has never realised international circuit demands so he never had carried that mental toughness with him that could help transform a talented player into one of the best on international scene.

Though we still pin slim hope on Nasir when he reruns to international squash in a year time, the rest of lot is too mediocre to carry the brunt of quality international squash demands. So it is wiser to have more faith in youth rather than investing heavily on tried and tested players.

Looking after young lot with a proper planning is what we require at this stage. Thanks to the recent steps taken by PSF Chief Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar with executing team led by Air Marshal Shahid Akhtar Alvi, we have seen a systemic rise in junior squash standard.

If Pakistan have scooped up three gold medals at Asian Junior Championship leaving well-versed Malaysian, Indian and Hong Kong players behind, there must be a whole-hearted effort and planning behind it. And that surely had been seen in recent past. Keeping junior players in long training camps, hiring the services of best available coaches and on the top of all that making young lot realise that they have all the guts to beat the best around has helped these players earn laurels for the country. We hope that it would just be a beginning of more encouraging results in days to come.

The next important challenge now the PSF faces is to transform the quality and talent of these youngsters onto senior stag. For Abbas Zeb there is not much left at junior level but in highly talented Hamza Khan who won the Under-15 Asian crown we possibly are watching a future world junior champion, the title that eluded Pakistan for no less than almost 32 years now. What required is to keep Hamza busy throughout the years exposing him against the best in the world regularly so that in a couple of years time he could well be in a position to even confront seniors.

One must appreciate never say die effort on part of the PSF that helped the country stage a renaissance in the game at Asian level. The government needs to back federation’s efforts in its quest to get more favorable results in months and years to come.

Spotting the talent has always been a tough task in a country where the sports system has never been run professionally. But now when we have finally spotted a talent there is need to further support and invest in it. After all sports especially squash is the game which remained our brightest face abroad for decades.