‘Eain’s victory a lesson for Pak squash officialdom’

KARACHI: The rise of Eain Yow Ng of Malaysia to the level of World Junior Champion has many lessons for Pakistani squash authorities who have failed to turn any junior player into a champion for past many years.

Eain defeated top seed Saadeldin Abouaish of Egypt in the final of the championship in Poland on Friday.

He was spotted by Malaysian squash authorities a few years back and they polished him to become a world champion.

“This is because of the programmes they copied from Pakistan. We used to produce champions but now it has all become a matter of past,” said a local coach.

He said Eain won British Junior Open under-17 title in Jan 2015 by beating Saadeldin Abouaish, which shows both the players had a great programme behind them.

In January this year, Saadeldin Abouaish beat him in the semi-final of British Junior Open under-19.

The coach said that Israr Ahmed overpowered him in the final of Asian Junior Championship (under-19) category 11-7, 7-11, 11-13, 11-8, 6-11 in 66 minutes in August 2015.

“Israr is our star and he proved his mettle when he won the final of one category in British Junior Open by defeating an Egyptian player a few years back but we failed to transform him into a real champion,” said the coach.

The coach added that still the policies being pursued by the federal squash authority were adding salt to injury. “The provincial squash authorities have also failed to produce quality players since their officials are more interested in petty politics,” he added.

The coach said that Sindh has not been able to produce any champion in junior or senior categories for a long time. “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa association has adopted a strange policy of organising many low-prized events just to keep their players in top rankings,” said the coach.

He said the ranking system of the country was highly flawed which could not help find talented squash players. “Our squash authorities are living in a fool’s paradise,” said the coach.