PSF, Kazim plan to groom local players

KARACHI: The cash-strapped Pakistan Squash Federation is possibly getting a big sponsor soon to finance local players for international events and training from Egyptian coaches.

“Kazim Anwar, who runs a trust, has asked me to guide him as he wants to sponsor talented local players and get them trained by Egyptian coaches,” said legendary squash player Qamar Zaman while talking to ‘The News’.

He added that Kazim wanted to provide help to players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially Noor Zaman and Hamza Khan, and he has many plans in this regard. “But I have arranged his meeting with the officials of PSF and I asked him to work with PSF since the federation is facing financial crisis currently,” said Qamar.

He added that Kazim would probably agree on sharing fifty percent cost of players’ participation in international events while the remaining fifty percent will be borne by PSF.

“Besides sharing traveling cost, Kazim also wants to arrange Egyptian coaches for local players and this could be done by either inviting Egyptian coaches to Pakistan or sending our players there,” said Qamar.

Qamar said that PSF is in talks with Kazim in this regard and it is expected they would reach an agreement soon which in turn would help the game of squash in Pakistan.

It is worth adding here that Kazim is a renowned industrialist and served as Secretary Sindh Squash Association a long time back.

He set up an academy at Roshan Khan Jahangir Khan Squash Complex here in 2015.

He partnered with Jahangir Khan for Champion Hunt Initiative Programme for Squash (CHIPS) and they selected a dozen players from across the country with the pledge to provide them accommodation, food, stipend, equipment, and facilitation for participation in national and international events.

The players were getting training from Asif Khan and Abdur Rehman and the academy was planned for 3 to 5 years. The selected players were then sent to participate in the Malaysian Junior Open Squash Championship held at Penang from June 1-6, 2015, at a total cost of more than Rs 1.5 million.

But their poor performance disappointed Kazim, while Jahangir asked the sponsor to give incentives to players for qualifying for the finals in the championship.

The selected players under the initiative were not happy with coaches, accommodation, monthly stipend, and equipment. They also complained of unavailability of competition.

The players did not like the coaching style of Asif Khan while Abdul Rehman was sacked by the academy officials soon after the launch of the academy, which affected the programme.

Moreover, the players showed their reservations on the cut in their stipend from Rs5000 per month to Rs2000. The top players of the academy went to their hometowns and did not come back.

“Kazim was of the view that the academy or the CHIPS was closed down due to the accountability issues while the selected players were also quite disappointing and lethargic,” said a source while talking to this scribe.

The source added that it is good news that Kazim is once again coming forward to help this sport.