The Pakistani squash players maintained their absolute dominance over world squash for almost four decades between the years 1951 and 1998. One can earmark two major phases of Pakistan’s dominance. The first spanned between 1951 and 1963, and the second lasted between 1981 and 1998. Even the intervening period between these two generations of Pakistani squash players, Pakistan remained as a major contender for squash titles. The sport since has fallen into serious decline, since 1998, one of its clear manifestations is the rapid fall in world rankings of Pakistan’s squash players.
Pioneers of Pakistan Squash
As India was the largest British colony, so like any other sport, cricket, hockey, the British also introduced squash in the subcontinent. Squash developed as an elite sport as all the pioneers of squash in Pakistan belonged to the families, whose elder worked as ball boys and linemen or work associated in other capacities with the British Officer clubs in the northern parts.
Therefore, it is not surprising to find that the sporting tradition had a profound impact on northwestern India, particularly the province of NWFP. For instance, most of the Indian players like Abdul Bari, Hashim Khan, Roshan and Azam Khan belonged to Khan Family of Nawakille. If one looks at the Performances of World top squash players between 1929 and 1950 we find that it was mostly the British and Egyptian players that dominated the international squash scene. The player like Abdul Bari and Hashim Khan and later Azam and Roshan establish the credential as top players at an all-India level during the 1940s.
In the aftermath of the partition, the training facilities were nonexistent along with no government patronage. Amid these hurdles, Khan Family of Nawakille’s players, by dint of their sheer determination, played a key role in establishing Pakistan’s dominance in the world squash within few years after the independence.
Prominent players of the era
These forerunners’ determination was the reason behind their such zealous attitude towards squash and victories. The names who first introduced Pakistan in the arena of world squash include Hashim Khan, Azam Khan, Roshan Khan, and Mohibullah Khan.
Hashim Khan (1914-2014)
Hashim Khan was the first international player who won the British Open Squash Championship seven times in eight years between 1951 and 1958.
Abdullah Khan, his father, had a great love for sports and he was a good player of lawn tennis and squash. Hashim developed his passion for squash right from his childhood. But Abdullah Khan met an accidental death when Hashim was only 11 years old and he had to leave school on account of financial constraints.
Hashim with other ball boys used to play squash at the court in the absence of British officers. In those days the British Officer’s Club Peshawar only had open-air squash courts. Eventually, Hashim Khan managed to draw the attention of some of the British officers.
The year 1944 marked his first appearance in a competitive tournament, the Western Indian Squash Championship, that was organized by the Cricket Club of India in Bombay. Hashim Khan, after winning three consecutive matches qualified for the final in which he defeated Abdul Bari, the Indian champion at that time.
After the partition of India, Hashim Khan started playing for Pakistan. In 1949 he won Pakistan Military Academy Kakul Championships, the first major squash event in the country. A group of British Officers of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), who keenly followed the sport, encouraged, Hashim Khan to participate him in the British Open (1951).
In 1951, Hashim Khan launched his career as a professional squash player at international level in 1951, at the age of 37 years. He won the tournament by defeating Mahmoud El Karim, an Egyptian player who had won the previous four editions of the tournament.
The victory marked the beginning of his illustrious international career of Hashim Khan in the world of squash. As the record of his performances at the British open shows that between 1951 and 1956 he went on to win five consecutive titles. After losing the final of the British Open (1957), he reclaimed the title in 1958.
He had immortalized his name in the annals of squash by establishing a new record of victories at the British Open. Hashim Khan played his last British Open in 1959. After the tournament, he quitted the game on account of injury problems.
Azam Khan (b.1926)
Azam Khan was the younger brother of Hashim Khan and played a key role in his upbringing. He was also a source of inspiration for Azam Khan throughout his sporting career.
Azam Khan launched his squash career in 1952. He first participated in the British Professional Championship (1953) where played final with his elder brother Hashim Khan but lost the match.
Despite this, the Squash Rackets Association was reluctant to allow him to enter the British Open of 1953 because in those days British Open Draw was limited to only to sixteen players. Azam was played a trial match with Brian Phillips and successfully won his trial match to play in the British Open.
Initially Azam Khan was working as a coach in the Pakistan Air Force, where he had been employed as a porter on a monthly salary of 60 rupees. In 1953, when he reached the semi-final of the British Open he was promoted to ‘electrician’ and his salary rose to 100 rupees per month. But the following year, when he finished runner-up, far from being promoted he was demoted back to the level of porter.
Azam Khan becomes British Open champion in 1959 in a win against his nephew Mohibullah Khan. He is regarded as one of the greatest squash players in the squash playing world.
Yet within two years of Hashim Khan’s bidding, Azam Khan was ready to take on the best in the world. Azam Khan played with his brother Hashim Khan in the British Open finals of 1954, 1955 and 1958, but remained the runner-up. In 1956, he played an exhibition match against Hashim Khan at the New Grampians Club in Shepherds Bush.
After the match, he was offered a job to coach the club. He accepted this job and then settled in England and subsequently became club owner. Hashim Khan’s brother Azam Khan won four British Open titles after 1958. After his elder brother and his cousin Roshan Khan, he was the third squash player from Pakistan to have won the British Open.
Azam Khan had won not only the British Open and British Professional titles but also the most important hardball tournament, the US Open, for the first time in one year. Later, he had to retire from competitive squash due to an Achilles tendon injury. Subsequently, his son Nawaz Khan’s death and the injury forced him to exit from the arena. However, his club is linked with the development of arguably the greatest squash player, ever produced.
Roshan Khan (1929 – 2006)
Roshan Khan was the second player from Pakistan who won one British Open title and stood two times runner-up. His father Faizullah Khan worked at the British Army Club Rawalpindi as a squash marker. His mother was the daughter of Abdul Majeed Khan who was a prominent squash professional. Inspired by his family background, he started his squash career in the mid-1940; he rose to prominence by qualifying for the final of the Pakistan Professional Championship in 1949, but he lost. He did not get discouraged and finally won the Pakistan Professional Championship in 1951. Being done so, he defended the title for the next two years.
Roshan Khan had to face severe financial constraints in the initial phase of his career, which forced him to move to Karachi in the early 1950s. Despite all odds, he kept his passion for squash. He got a job of “messenger” in the Pakistan Navy in 1952 that gave him a lucky break, as it not only eased financial burden but also provided him opportunities to travel to Britain in the mid-1950s to participate in the British Open Championship.
Roshan Khan soon rose to the top 5 ranking in the world of squash and remained among top contenders between the years 1956 and 1961. Roshan Khan’s victory in the British Open Championship marked a momentous occasion in his professional career, as became the second Pakistani after Roshan Khan to win this prestigious tournament.
Apart from British Open he earned victories in the North American Open in 1958, 1960 and 1961. He was also the Canadian Open Champion twice in the late-1950.
We can point two significant contributions of Roshan Khan to the sport of squash in Pakistan. The first was his inspirational role as a top player. The second was his role as a professional coach. In the latter capacity, he coached his sons, Torsam Khan and Jahangir Khan. The former’s career came to a sudden end in 1979 due to his untimely death, whereas the latter made a lasting imprint on world squash as one of the greatest players of the sport in the twentieth century.
2.1.4 Mohibullah Khan (1938-1995)
Mohibullah Khan started playing squash in the mid-1950. His association with Hashim Khan and Azam Khan helped him to make an early debut in the British Open Championship [in 1957] at the age of nineteen. He reached the semi-final stage but lost to Hashim Khan.
He made its presence felt as serious competitor of the world squash by reaching finals of all three British Open Championships between 1959 and 1962. The organizers of the British Open Championship entered his name in the roll of distinguished squash players in 1962. He, eventually, became the British Open Champion in 1963.
After Mohibullah Khan’s victory the British Open Championship of 1963 none of the Pakistani players could ever win the British Open till 1975.
A brief assessment of early squash players
As we noted in the introduction that it were the British that had introduced the sport of squash in the sub-continent. On the surface, it appears quite farfetched to establish a direct role of the British officers’ clubs in the rise of the first generation of the squash players in Pakistan, but a closed study of family background of the first generation of the squash players, who hailed from Nawakille, a small village 100 miles off Peshawar, corroborates this contention.
Abdullah Khan (d.1928), the father of Hashim Khan and Azam Khan, worked as a head steward in British Officers Club Peshawar. The association of Abdullah Khan with Squash drew the attention of his children towards squash. For instance, Hashim Khan worked in different capacities in the British officers’ club, as a ball-picker/ squash helper and later as a coach in the early 1940s.
Similarly, Faizullah Khan, the father of Roshan Khan worked as a squash marker for the British Officers Club (Rawalpindi). Thus the British officers’ clubs of Peshawar and Rawalpindi served as breeding grounds in the rise of these three distinguished squash players. While assessing the role of the British officers clubs, one should not ignore the fact that at that time supervisory bodies like formal squash federations did not exist in British India. And the Pakistan Squash Federation was established seven years after the independence.
It appears quite strange that the Pakistani squash players like Hashim Khan and Roshan Khan had started winning laurels in the absence of a formal regulatory body. But during this crucial period, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) provided sound institutional support for the development of squash in Pakistan. Here, one should not overlook the transcendental impact of the British clubs in generating interests of the officer corps of the Pakistan armed forces towards squash. They also hired the prominent players as employees, including Hashim Khan and Roshan Khan.
The PAF also patronized the PSF, right after PSF establishment. If one looks at the hierarchal structure of the PSF, one finds that the officers belonging to the PAF had always remained at the helm of the former. The PAF, by providing promising as well as veteran squash jobs, created new employment opportunities for the squash players that not only contributed to professionalize the sport of squash in Pakistan but also, in certain ways made the squash a profession. PAF also earned the distinction of establishing the first Squash Complex in Pakistan that was established in 1962.
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