Jamshed slams PSF for World Junior debacle

KARACHI: Former national squash coach Jamshed Gul has criticised the authorities in Pakistan for wasting the opportunity to win World Juniors in France.

“The current edition of the World Juniors, which is underway in France, was the easiest in the last 16 years. Yet our players could not do well,” said Jamshed while talking to ‘The News’ from the United States.

Jamshed, who is doing a coaching assignment in the US, added that Pakistan’s Hamza Khan and Noor Zaman were top seeds, but still failed to win the championship.

It is pertinent to mention here that Hamza and Noor lost in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.

“This was the best opportunity to bring back the title of World Juniors to Pakistan after 35 years but there were a a number of factors which meant Pakistan could not do that,” said Jamshed.

He added that the tour was planned quite badly by the federation. "Non-qualified coaches accompanied the 4-member national team for the event," he said.

It is worth adding here that Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) does not have a full time professional qualified coach at national level for past few years and the coaching directorate is being run by part-time associate coaches.