British Open Squash: Pakistan junior players face tough task

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan juniors left here for England to compete in the British Open Squash starting in Birmingham in a few days time, participation in the Scottish Open that is already underway in Edinburgh could have given young aspirants a timely boost and exposure for more prestigious event.

The year of 2019 had gone by without any British Open juniors (in any category) title. Countries like Egypt, Malaysia, England and even India got their hands on British Open junior squash titles last year. It was traditionally nursery of the game, Pakistan that failed to win a single title despite having some highly talented players like Mohammad Hamza Khan in the squad. Hamza again will be seen in action in January in a different category of the Open. Yet again Pakistani youngsters will be asked to compete against those having more exposure especially at that time-in the just concluded Scottish Open. In modern day sports it is the international exposure and continuous training and then exposure that matters most.

Sadly for Pakistan youth that has not been the case. They will be asked to beat those in British Open who have already attained maturity by competing and playing against the best in Scottish Open and other events.

When the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) secretary Group Captain Tahir Sultan was questioned as why these players were not provided with the opportunity to compete in the Open ahead of British Juniors, he had multiple reasons saying that weather is too cold for youn­gsters’ comfort.

“The weather in Edinburgh is too cold and usually our players get ill competing ahead of the more important British Open. Secondly, the referring has never been up to the mark there.”

Another reason he mentioned was the mishandling of draws and other related matters by the organisers. “The draws of the Open have already missing 21 players’ names for different countries. We have recently given wild cards to some budding youngsters to play in the PSA event and that was more an exposure.”

These excuses aside but the international exposures against players of the same ages teach a player a timely lesson as how to win mat-ches when the competition gets really tough. Majority of other countries’ aspirants are already started making the best use of opportunity available at the Scottish Open.

Meanwhile, nine players along with officials have left for England for the British Open on Sunday. Apart from the nine, three more are waiting for the clearance of their passport at UK Embassy.

“Yes, we have yet to get passports of three players who have been drawn to play British Open. The UK Embassy has delayed their visa process despite the fact these are regular visitors, Group Captain Tahir Sultan said.

The squad that left for UK is: Under-19: Haris Qasim, Hamza Sharif; Under-17: Noor Zaman, Asad UllahWalid Khalil; Under-15: Hamza Khan and Anas Ali Bukhari; Under-13: Abdullah Nawaz. Uzair Shokat (under-19), Ashab Arfan (under-17) and Sakhi Tareen (under-13) have yet to receive their passports back.

Officials: Asif Khan (coach), Air Cmdr (r) Aftab Sadiq Qureshi (contingent head), Hussain Odhwani (team manager).