In a previous piece, I listed a number of misadventures by Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) that proved damaging to both players and the game of squash. This time I would like to mention a few more.

In September 2011, PSF banned three top squash players for underperforming in the World Men’s Team Squash Championship held in Germany where Pakistan finished 22nd.

The players were Aamir Atlas Khan (Asian Games gold medalist and top player of the country at that time), Yasir Butt, and Waqar Mehboob while Nasir Iqbal was given a strict warning.

The players were banned in the light of the team manager’s report along with video recordings presented in the 32nd Executive Committee’s meeting.

The disciplinary committee questioned the players and sought their views in a 7 to 8 hours’ session and concluded that the players under-performed.

Hence, Aamir was banned for 2 years from participation in all national/international events and barred from using any PSF playing facilities in Pakistan and securing financial support/sponsorship for international tournaments. Yasir Butt was banned for 1 year and Waqar Mehboob was banned for 6 months with the same provisions.

In October, Yasir appealed against the ban and claimed that former secretary Irfan Asghar did not fulfill his responsibilities as the manager and the coach during the world championship.

Later, Asghar got banned by the World Squash Federation (WSF) for leveling allegations against the then President WSF.

The PSF lifted the ban on Aamir and Yasir in 2012 during the 33rd Executive Committee meeting when both the players tendered their apologies to the President PSF.

In 2012, the country’s top players took a stance against the PSF and announced leaving the country. The players complained that they were not provided international ranking events, better accommodation, food, and daily allowance. This situation panicked the federation’s officials and they had to appease the players.

In another futile bid, PSF arranged an education programme (in Grade-6 and Grade-8) for four junior players and placed them in a reputable educational institute/school. They were to play squash under a PSF-nominated coach.

But after just one year, the programme failed and all four players had to discontinue their studies because they were not making any progress — in education or squash.

In 2015, the country’s top players Amir Atlas and Farhan Mehboob boycotted the trials for the 18th Asian Individual Championships as Farhan wanted exemption from the trials and Amir (and his brother Danish) wanted to be coached by Jamshed Gul.

Farhan claimed that he was the country’s top player at that time and so deserved exemption from the trials but the federation stated that national rankings were not a benchmark for the selection.

Amir, who won the championship after 14 years for the country in 2014, refused to appear in the trials and coaching camp because of Fahim Gul, who replaced Jamshed Gul as the national coach.

In the following years, the federation forced Ahsan Ayaz to participate in the trials for an Asian level championship despite that he was getting training at academies — first in Mexico and then in Barcelona.

Since Ahsan’s father was a PAF employee, he was pressured by the federation to an extent that he called Ahsan to appear in the trials and not go back to the academies.

Ahsan had to follow the federation’s directions or he would not have been allowed to participate in international events. This affected his career badly.

The same thing happened with Huzaifa Ibrahim, who was the finalist of the US Junior Open in 2023. The federation did not exempt him from the trials for the British Junior Open.

This angered Huzaifa’s mentor Jahanzeb Masud and he criticised the federation. “It is really a sad day for me to witness such a poor performance [of Pakistani contingent at BJO 2024].

Other countries’ squash federations work hard to nurture their talent but we ignore our talented players as happened to Huzaifa Ibrahim.

“He was the finalist of US Junior Squash Open but he was not considered by Pakistan Squash Federation for BJO in the under-19 category just because he could not appear in trials,” said Jahanzeb.

In another bizarre incident, a former PSF secretary slapped a player after he lost a match in the British Junior Open a few years ago. This was shocking to the local squash fraternity and for the coaching staff present at BJO at that time.

However, this issue never got a chance to be taken up by the disciplinary or the executive committee of the federation since this act was done by a key official of the federation.

These misadventures of the PSF reflect the working pattern of the squash regulator. The current ailing situation of the sport in the country owes much to this pattern.