Pakistan squash was in the news last week. And for a change it was in the news for positive reasons. The country’s young players had comfortably won the title in the 21st Asian Junior Team Squash Championship in the south Indian city of Chennai.

One of the reasons why the news of such a minor international squash event was splashed in the media was the fact that the Pakistani boys routed hosts India in the final of the championship held at the Indian Squash and Triathlon Academy last Sunday.

The top ten Asian teams from Chinese Taipei, Hong-Kong (China), Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and India took part in the championship.

It was certainly an emphatic triumph. The Pakistani team spearheaded by Hamza Khan, one of the brightest young players on the international junior circuit, marched into the final with a series of one-sided wins. Spurred by the equally-talented Noor Zaman, who gave Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the final by prevailing against India’s Krishna Mishra 3-1, Pakistan won the final 2-0 after Hamza blanked Paarth Ambani 3-0 in the decisive match.

The news of Pakistan’s victory was hailed in the national squash circles. The Pakistan team, which also included Ashab Irfan and Anas Bokhari (reserve), received a heroes’ welcome on arrival and were also given cash awards for the title-winning triumph.

It’s not surprising why the Pakistani squash fraternity is celebrating the national team’s victory in a championship which hardly mattered for us in the past. International success for Pakistan on the squash courts has been few and far between in the last few years. The standard of our players continues to go down. Even highly promising players like Peshawar’s Hamza Khan and Noor Zaman have failed to live up to expectations in major international junior competitions.

Take for example the case of Hamza. He is being seen as a player who has the potential to emulate the mighty Jansher Khan, a record ten-time World Open champion. Hamza has made his bones as a top-class junior player having won the British Junior and US Junior titles. Last year at the World Junior Championships in France he was a hot favourite for the title. There were high hopes back in Pakistan that the youngster will become the first player from his country since Jansher to become the world junior champion. However, there was heartbreak for Hamza when he lost to England’s Finnlay Withington by 2-3 in a thrilling semi-final of the World Junior Championship.

While Hamza continues to struggle even in international junior events, Jansher never faced any problems in becoming the only player in squash history to hold both the world junior and World Open titles simultaneously.

If players like Hamza and Noor have to go the distance at the professional level, they will need to work hard like their illustrious predecessors Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan. Otherwise, they are unlikely to compete against the best on the international tour.

Jansher should be a beacon for our junior players. His rise to the top is some story. It was in 1985 when Jansher made his presence felt in an international event for the first time by reaching the semi-finals of a junior tournament as a 15-year-old. He lost to a more established Umar Hayyat Khan in the event in Hong Kong but that experience was enough to give the youngster a lot of confidence.

“Even at 15, I had this feeling that I will become the best in the world,” Jansher told me in an interview. “Then my role model was Jahangir and my biggest target was to beat him.”

Beating Jahangir back in the mid-eighties was seen as an impossible task. At that time Jahangir was in the middle of his unbeaten run which lasted for more than five and half years.

“I never thought he (Jahangir) was unbeatable,” Jansher stressed.

“He was simply mad,” remembered Qamar Zaman, another squash legend. “I’ve never seen anyone working harder than him. He would train all day whether it was boiling hot or freezing cold. You could see from the determination of this youngster that he was destined to be a world champion,” added Qamar, a former British Open champion.

In 1985, Jansher played in a couple of international junior events losing in the quarter or semi-final stages. Following the losses, he knew that he needed to work harder. His normal working day would be matches against a series of players followed by solo training. He would also run for miles without taking a break.

“Having lost my matches in Kuala Lumpur and Cairo (in 1985) I knew I had to be fitter. The work I put in after that was the hardest in my entire career.”

And it paid off.

In 1986, Jansher was selected to represent Pakistan in the World Junior Championships in Adelaide. The event would change his life.

When Jansher landed in Adelaide, he was a complete nobody. Hometown favourite Rodney Eyles was supposed to win the world junior title. But Jansher, in top gear after all the hard work in Peshawar, was in ruthless form. He just tore through the draws of the championship and reached the final without much fuss. Despite his excellent run, the form book suggested that Eyles will win the crown. “I beat him 9-2, 9-0, 9-0 in the final,” he said.

Jansher could have played on the international junior circuit for a few more years. But, unlike our players today who are happy to stay on the junior circuit as long as possible, he had far bigger ambitions.

After winning the world junior title, Jansher joined the professional circuit by becoming a Professional Squash Association (PSA) member. He spent a few months with coach Mohammad Yasin in London and was ready to take on the world. He qualified for the 1986 World Open in Toulouse and ousted Englishman Phil Kenyon in the opening round. He fell in the second round to Chris Robertson.

A few months later, Jansher made his maiden appearance in the prestigious British Open. And for the first time since Azam Khan’s stunning run in the 1954 edition an unseeded player reached the final of the tournament.

Jansher’s giant-killing act began with the scalp of Rodney Eyles in the first round. He won a marathon second round against compatriot Zarak Jahan. He beat Gawain Briars to set up a quarter-final date with Ross Norman, then the reigning world champion. He came back from 1-2 down to topple Norman and then stunned Australian Chris Dittmar to set up an all-Pakistan final against the great Jahangir Khan.

“It was like a dream come true,” said Jansher. “Here I was, an 18-year-old facing Jahangir in a British Open final,” he recalled.

Jahangir used his vast experience to tame Jansher 9-6, 9-0, 9-0 to extend his unbeaten run in the British Open. It was a comprehensive win for Jahangir which is why Jansher was ridiculed a few weeks later when he claimed that he was ready to dethrone Jahangir as the world’s number one player.

“Everybody laughed when at a press conference in Hong Kong I claimed that I’m going to beat Jahangir within the next six months. All of them found it to be ridiculous. Though it took a bit longer, seven-and-a-half months to be precise, I did go on to beat Jahangir not just once but on many occasions.”

It was at the 1987 Hong Kong Open that another legend was born.

Jansher reached the final as an unseeded player and faced Jahangir in the title clash. “It turned out to be one of the finest days of my squash career,” said Jansher, who stunned the world of squash by beating Jahangir 10-8, 9-2, 9-2 in the final.

The Hong Kong Open triumph ushered in a new era in squash history, the reign of the mighty Jansher Khan.

When the squash scene shifted to Karachi, Jansher beat Jahangir again to become the new Pakistan Open champion. Then in Birmingham, the two met again in the World Open semi-finals. They fought like gladiators for 108 minutes before Jansher won 3-9, 9-4, 9-7, 9-7.

He then went on to conquer Dittmar in an epic final to become the new World Open champion. He became the only player in squash history to hold the world junior and World Open titles at the same time. Jansher went on to win seven more World Open titles, a world record.

“I was blessed,” he said. “Also, I worked really hard. My message to our young squash players is to know the importance of hard work and dedication. You have to give it your hundred percent because there can’t be any shortcuts on the way to becoming a world champion.”

Khalid Hussain is Editor Sports of The News

Khalidhraj@gmail.com