‘Pak squash needs talent hunt programme’

KARACHI: Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has not taken any talent hunt initiative for last one decade, which has limited the supply of talented players to the country.

The last talent hunt programme was launched back in 2005. “This is the reason the supply of fresh talent to represent the country at the international level has been stopped,” said a former coach, who now resides in the US.

The coach added that this long gap has eroded the depth Pakistan once had in squash. “In 2004, we found Ali Bukhari, Tayyab Aslam, Bilal Zakir, Saad Shahid, Nosherwan Khan and some others,” said the coach.

These players were very talented and they represented Pakistan at the international level and some of them won international titles as well. “Now, they all have passed their golden period. PSF now has to start work from ground zero to find new talent,” said the coach.

“PSF must bear in mind that they now need 10 years to fully develop new players and only finding them would take four to five years. The results won’t come easily, and PSF will have to be patient,” said the coach.

He said that the strength of PSF’s coaches is poor and PSF also needs to look for new coaches to groom players. “They should form an independent coaching wing of experienced coaches,” suggested the coach.

“India and Hong Kong have surpassed Pakistan in this game. Therefore, PSF should not waste more time and immediately start hunting for new talent and groom it as per international standards,” he added.

Meanwhile, a local coach said that the main reason for this decline is that the squash academies have failed to deliver and they are only minting money from their sponsors. “The squash academies in the country both being run by former legendary players and by the squash federation have completely failed to deliver and they did not produce any single player in the past many years,” said the local coach. He added that PSF should stop funding the academies that have failed to produce results even if they are run by some legendary players.