ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) honorary secretary Group Captain Amir Nawaz has said that the federation is all set to organise $25,000 2nd Serena Hotels - Chief of Air Staff (CAS) Squash Championship 2015 from September 29 here at Mushaf Ali Mir Squash Complex.
The preparations are in final stages to conduct the event in a highly professional manner. Talking to The Nation, Amir said: “I promise the event will be a huge success this year, as we have planned well to not only provide best available facilities to the participating players but also maintain high standard during the event.”
“We are very grateful to our title sponsors Serena Hotels. Despite we contacted them a bit late, they were very positive and ready to respond for the country, their gesture is highly appreciable, we expect more and more multi-nationals and national institutions to come forward and lend helping hand to federation as it is a noble cause, we are working collectively to take Pakistan squash back to old glory days, when I took over, we had faced hell lot of difficulties as were very limited options as far as pool of players is concern, but now we have established world class academy and hired professional coaches, we would not hesitate to hire international coaches as well, as it is about the future of Pakistan squash, no compromise when it comes to national interests,” he added.
Amir said: “We have started work on producing juniors and working mainly on grassroots level, we had installed along term plan, off course we would face some difficulties in the initial stage, as it would not be easy to expect over the moon results in short span of time, we had rules world of squash for almost 4 decades, but after 1997, when the great Jansher won the British Open, none of our players managed to win any world title, which is quite pinching, we have given top most priority to provide best facilities, coaching to the junior lot and also paying great attention towards providing top class facilities to our top players.”
“Nasir, Farhan Zaman, Danish Atlas, Farhan Mehboob and others are taken good care of and we would extend help to other players as well, as we want to enhance pool of players, when asked about Pakistan would miss Aamir Atlas Khan, last year’s runner-up and Farhan Zaman in the championship.
When asked why federation didn't contacted Aamir Atlas to come and play the event, Amir replied: “I time and again requested Aamir Atlas to come and discuss if he had any issues with the federation, we are ready to accept all his genuine demands and ready to help him out , we are willing to address his grievances, if any, but he turned his back on all our requests, he had some other plans, yes off course, Aamir Atlas would be badly missed, as he had still squash left in him, we wanted to help him in best possible manner, but he is unwilling to sit on the table and bring forward his demands,” the PSF secretary said.
When asked about seasoned campaigner Farhan Mehboob would play the qualifying round while on the other hand rookie Israr Ahmed was given wild card, Amir replied, it is very good for Farhan Mehboob to play qualifying round, it would help him adjusting to the situation and I am quite sure, he would won his matches and play in the main round, Israr deserved wild card as last time we gave wild cards to Tayyab Aslam and Asim Khan, it was Israr's turn as he had exhibited top squash and won Asian Junior Individual title.
When asked about realistic chances of Pakistan players winning the tournament, Amir replied: “It is too early to comment on that, I am sure Nasir, Danish and others are more than capable of at least making it to the semifinals. They are all good and especially local crowd would play key role just like they did in the previous event. Pakistan is ready to welcome our guests with open arms no matter who wins, but one thing is for sure, it would be squash which finally prevails,” Amir concluded.