On a cool November morning, Jansher Khan greeted me with a smile and a hug at his Peshawar residence. It was after more than eight years that I was meeting him. In fact it was the first time that I spoke to Jansher after breaking the story about him suffering from Parkinson’s disease back in the fall of 2011. He never complained about it but it was clear that he didn’t like it.

For almost 20 years starting with the spring of 1991 when I began my career as a cub reporter at The News, Jansher would frequently call me. Most of the times it was about a tournament he was going to play or about the one he had already featured in. Sometimes he would just call to say hello. But after my story about his illness that made international headlines, Jansher never rang me up. It was clear that we weren’t friends any more.

But if Jansher was still holding a grudge, he hid it well.

It was due to an effort by his ever-smiling son Ayaz Sher that we finally met after a gap of more than eight years. The meeting, to my surprise, went really well.

Jansher, now 50, showed little or no signs of his illness. He didn’t speak about it, apart from complaining about a few pains here and there which keep him from exercising or, at times, even walking.

He was more interested in recalling memories of the good old days, about the memories of the two of us travelling together in England, Switzerland and many other places for major international squash tournaments back in the nineties. Then, Jansher was the undisputed king of world squash. He would win one title after the other without much fuss. More often than not I would be present to report on his World or British Open triumphs.

“Those were the days,” he said with a smile.

Then Jansher was a supremely-gifted athlete. He was tall and lean and had a big reach that helped him win an unprecedented 99 international titles.

But since giving up squash almost 16 years ago, Jansher has gained weight. “I don’t know what to do,” he complains. “I’ve stopped eating meat and try to exercise but I’m still putting on weight.”

In his heyday, Jansher was quite a careless man. I still remember the 1994 British Open when I was horrified to learn that Jansher was completely on a diet of fried chicken and fish and chips for more than 10 days. “What’s wrong with fried chicken,” is how Jansher responded when I tried to persuade him to switch to healthier options. “It’s perfectly nutritious,” he had said.

Now, he knows better.

He also knows that taking things for granted back in his younger days was one of the chief reasons why his illustrious international career ended a bit abruptly.

It was in 1998 that Jansher took what turned out to be one of the worst decisions of his career.

Jansher’s knees were giving him a lot of problems. He did win the Super Series Final that year but with bandaged knees. I was in London when Jansher began his title defence in the British Open at the Lamb’s Club. He was given a tough time by little-known Belgian Stefan Castelyn in the opening round. After his 3-2 win, Jansher confided in me that he played the match after taking a lot of pain-killers.

I advised him to think about pulling out. But he decided against it. After all, it was the coveted British Open. And he was looking for his 100th PSA title.

There was some respite for Jansher when the business end of the British Open moved from the warm and bouncy courts of the Lamb’s Club to the familiar confines of a Perspex court installed at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

Despite his knee problem, Jansher appeared to be in his element as defeated Australia Bryan Davis and then tamed Briton Paul Johnson to reach the semifinals. He was given a run for his money by Dan Jenson, a tall and aggressive Aussie, but managed to make it to the final. But by then, Jansher knees were in a bad shape. He took a lot of painkillers and faced Scotsman Peter Nicol in the final. His gallant bid for a seventh British Open title was thwarted by Nicol in an epic opening game which he won 17-16. After that, Jansher just gave up allowing Nicol to become the first non-Pakistani to win the title since Geoff Hunt’s victory against a young Jahangir Khan in 1981. Nicol, who later switched his allegiance to England, also became the first Briton to win the British Open in 25 years (Jonah Barrington won it in 1973).

Jansher, meanwhile, was fully aware that he needed to get his knees fixed in order to make a successful comeback.

“I will soon go to Manchester to visit a world-famous knee specialist,” he told me in Birmingham. “I will get my knees operated on there.”

Jansher returned home from Birmingham with plans to return to England for the knee surgery in Manchester that same month.

But a few days later, I received a call from him. “I’m in Lahore for my surgery,” he said, taking me completely by surprise. “What! But you were supposed to go to Manchester for the operation,” I said. “No, I’ve found a very good doctor in Lahore who has promised that he can bring me back on the circuit fully fit within a few months,” he replied.

I tried to convince him otherwise but Jansher was always a very stubborn man.

He was convinced that in Dr Ghulam Abbas he had found the perfect doctor to treat his painful knees. He underwent a knee surgery in Lahore, thus ending any hopes of resurrecting his international career.

So does he still regret making that decision?

Certainly!

“I shouldn’t have opted for Dr Ghulam Abbas,” he laments. “That surgery completely ruined my knees. Later I consulted with specialists in England and they told me that nothing could be done that could help me play top-level squash again,” he says.

Jansher made several attempts to revive his professional career but to no avail.

Finally in 2002, he decided to kiss the sport goodbye. Then, he told me that he intends to spend the rest of his life with his family.

“I want to enjoy life, something I never really had a chance to do in my younger days. Squash was everything for me. Now I want to do a lot of things especially spending quality time with my wife, kids and friends,” he told me.

He has doing precisely that over the last 17 years or so. Both his sons – Ayaz and Ali Sher – live with him in his sprawling residence in Peshawar’s Cantonment area with their respective families. “It’s a good life,” says Jansher.

To be continued

Khalid Hussain is Editor Sports of The News

khalidhraj@gmail.com