‘Non-professional coaches damaging Pakistan squash’

KARACHI: Seasoned coach Mehboob Khan has severely criticised Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) for its non-performing coaching system.

“People are asking me what is happening at PSF and with its coaching system. They are shocked that PSF has hired incompetent coaches,” said Mehboob while talking to ‘The News’. He added that those hired by PSF “don’t even know ABC of coaching. It’s beyond understanding why such people have been hired,” said Mehboob.

He said that this hiring of non-professional coaches by PSF was damaging Pakistan squash. “Our target in junior squash should have been British Junior Open and World Juniors,” said Mehboob.

“But our poor results in the two events speak volume of the incompetency of the coaches hired by PSF. “We have made enough investment in our junior programme. Now we need to focus on our seniors,” said Mehboob.

The coach added that he was ready to serve Pakistan squash, so he should be given a chance by PSF. “I worked with Jansher Khan and my results are more than enough to satisfy any organisation,” said Mehboob.

He requested the PSF president to give him a chance to coach national players, both at junior and senior levels. “My services to Pakistan squash are proof of my competency,” he claimed. No Pakistani coach has been able to win any Asian Squash Federation (ASF) award since 2007. In 2006 and 2007, Fahim Gul won ‘Coach of the Year’ award. Rehmat Khan won the award in 2004.

Ironically, PSF sacked Fahim, its only level-3 coach, and currently there is no head coach. PSF is running its coaching system with the help of associate coaches hired for brief periods.Before Fahim, PSF had also sacked Jamshed. “There is no qualified coach in the current coaching setup of PSF,” said Jamshed while talking to ‘The News’.

He is currently in the United States for some coaching assignments. Jamshed said PSF cannot prepare players through the faulty system for big international events.“Once our focus was on the World Junior Championships, British Junior Open and other high-profile events but now we are happy only by sending our junior players to Qatar and Malaysia,” he said.

Jamshed added that PSF needed to focus on big tournaments to provide competitive environment to the junior players. He said squash had changed a lot and it was difficult to survive in the current scenario by applying old tactics. “We must have a big network following the pattern of countries like Malaysia,” said Jamshed.

He added that squash in Pakistan needed huge investment. To a question, he said coaches would win awards on the basis of their performance and for that they needed refresher courses. “I conducted two level-2 coaching courses during my time and wanted to hold level-3 course as well. The current PSF management has not yet conducted any coaching course,” said Jamshed.

Former PSF secretary Pervaiz Saeed Mir said that no one had the vision to promote the game at the grassroots level. “There is no short-term or long-term youth or senior levels programme,” said Pervaiz. It is pertinent to mention here that Fahim (level 1, 2 and 3), Khalid Atlas Khan (level 1), and Yawar Islam (level 1) are the only coaching tutors from Pakistan at Asian level.