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By Khalid Hussain
From The International News
Amir Wagih, Egypt’s head coach, believes for the last twenty years Pakistan’s squash fraternity has been putting its head in the sand.
And Wagih, a former world number 16 who has been instrumental in what is a stunning revival of squash in his country, is of the view that Pakistan can only regain their lost glory in the field of squash by garnering Egypt’s support.
“For twenty years, Pakistani squash people have kept their head in the sand,” he told ‘The News’ in an interview. “They should now get up and do something concrete for the game before it’s too late,” he said.
“Egypt is the new capital of the squash world,” Wagih stressed. “Anybody who has to rise in international squash will have to come to play and train in Egypt,” he added.
Egypt dominated the men’s event of the World Open Squash Championships that concluded here at the National Squash centre on Sunday. Three of the semifinalists were Egyptians with two of them progressing to play an all-Egyptian final.
Cairo youngster Ramy Ashour defeated compatriot Karim Darwish in the final to replace another countryman Amr Shabana as the new World Open champion. Shabana lost to Ashour, a former world junior champion, in the semifinals.
Almost two decades back, Pakistan used to have a similar monopoly on the World Tour. But the last time a Pakistani won the World Open title was in 1996 when Jansher Khan won a record eighth crown.
In Manchester last week, a total of four Pakistanis featured on the main round draw but none of them could proceed beyond the second round. Wagih said that Pakistan should send their players to Egypt. “We have the best facilities, best coach and best players in Egypt,” he said.
“Pakistani players are extremely talented but they lack fitness and proper training, something they can get in Egypt,” added Wagih, who runs his academy in Cairo that has now become a nursery of world class players.
Wagih said that all top Egyptian players train at the academy and that provides younger players a chance to learn from them. “There is nothing like watching and training with top players. You can really learn from them,” he said.
Apart from Egyptian stars, Wagih’s academy has players coming from India, Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia. India’s British Under-17 champion Dipika Pallikal trains at Wagih’s academy. Wagih saw Pakistani youngsters Farhan Mehboob and Aamir Atlas Khan in action during the World Championships abd was impressed with their skills.
“Players like Farhan are young and talented. They know how to play shots but unfortunately they are not fit and strong enough to reach the top.” Wagih said that he is sad with the state of squash in countries like Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand, which once used to provide the international circuit with an unlimited supply of world class squash players.
“Squash is slowly finishing in countries like ... for the rest of the article please click HERE
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