Ghaffar wants to give Pakistan world class badminton structure

KARACHI: Former England badminton player and qualified coach Aamir Ghaffar wants to give such a badminton structure to Pakistan, the country of his origin, which he believes will help the state produce world beaters in the sport inside few years.

“I have achieved more as a shuttler representing England for around a decade. Now I want to transfer my experience and knowledge to the Pakistani shuttlers and to groom them properly. And for this I will need a proper set-up and a high performance centre in Pakistan,” Aamir told ‘The News’ in an interview from Peshawar on Saturday.

The 40-year old former England No 1 basically belongs to Bannu, a former semi-tribal belt, now merged in KP. He had migrated to England when he was a teenager. He has also done his level-2 coaching course from England and has been London’s coach as well. According to him he has produced six England No1 shuttlers in the last five years.

Aamir wants to give the nation such a structure for badminton which could be adopted by other sports federations for promoting their respective disciplines as well.

“Yes, it would be such a structure which could be followed by other sports bodies as well,” Aamir said. Aamir, who was part of the silver medallist England team in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, is more interested in opening a High Performance Centre in Islamabad and Performance Centres in the rest of the provinces.

And for all this he seeks state support. “I will definitely need the support of the federal and provincial governments,” Aamir said.

Aamir also remained Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Under-14 champion. His father Abdul Ghaffar was seven-time KP district champion besides his brother Asad Ghaffar who is also a shuttler.

“What I need is my own proper facility. I would love to work independently and will not be able to allow anyone to interfere in my working. If all such requirements are met then I am quite confident that I will be able to change the whole complexion of Pakistan’s badminton,” Aamir said. Aamir, who is also a close friend of British boxer Amir Khan, said that he did not play for Pakistan because he had settled in England when he was too young.

“You know I could easily force my way into England team which I did. As I had settled there at an extremely young age, kept playing there and contributed. Yes I could easily play for Pakistan in Olympics but now its the things of the past as I have now retired and want to serve Pakistan by preparing young lot if I am able to pave way for such a project here,” Aamir said.

India is also interested in Aamir. “Yes, India is interested in me. You know India has also not that developed in badminton as it has produced a single Olympic medal in the sport and that too in women’s category. But I prefer Pakistan, my own homeland. If I get such a facility of my own in KP at the first step then that would be extended to the rest of the country. The centres will also be connected with Pakistan’s schools and clubs in Europe,” Aamir said.

Aamir, the Peshawar-born Middlesex former star, played 39 times for England. He was the first Asian shuttler to pocket a National singles title when he beat Colin Haughton in 2004. He retained his title the following year and was still good enough to reach the final in 2006 when he lost in three games to Nick Kidd and again this year when he went down in three games to Rajiv Ouseph.During his career he climbed No 21 in the world and enjoyed big wins over China’s world No 3 Bao Chunlai and Korea’s 2004 Olympic silver medallist Shon Seung Mo. His best tournament performance on the world circuit was his Canadian Open title victory in 2005 but he was runner-up in a number of other tournaments on world circuit.

When Aamir said good bye to badminton in 2008 England head coach Ian Wright had said, quoted by ‘The Telegraph’ on October 1, 2008, “We are sorry to lose Aamir as a player but the time was right for him to step up and I am confident he will do well at Brunel and build up a strong cell of players.”