World Junior Team Squash: Pakistan clubbed with Zimbabwe, Czech Republic

KARACHI: Defending champions Pakistan have been placed in group F along with Zimbabwe and Czech Republic in the WSF World Junior Team Squash Championship, which starts on Tuesday (today) in Chennai, India.

According to the team draws released by WSF on Monday, 11th seeds Pakistan are placed with sixth seeds Czech Republic and 24th seeds Zimbabwe. The top two from each group will progress to the last-16 stage.

Pakistan squad comprises Abbas Zeb, Mohammad Uzair, Haris Qasim, and Farhan Hashmi. They will play against Czech Republic and Zimbabwe on Wednesday (tomorrow). Meanwhile, former champion Jansher Khan is in dismay at the poor performance of Pakistan at the World Junior Individual Squash Championships. “The selection committee has shown serious negligence while selecting players for such an important event. Also, the players were not given proper training,” said Jansher.

He held coaches and trainers of Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) responsible for not providing proper training to the players and not making players ready for this big event. “This mismanagement and selection of incompetent players were the reasons why we failed at World Junior,” he added.

Jansher further said that losing against players from Columbia and Mexico, who were almost unknown in the world squash circuit, was very embarrassing. “PSF has wasted national resources by sending incompetent players to India. The federation should have spent this money on arranging international junior tournaments in Pakistan.

“International players will participate in those events and our budding players will also be at advantage,” said Jansher. He said it was disappointing that no Pakistani had won World Junior Tournament since he won it in 1986.