Legendary Strokes Master Qamar Zaman Honored

PESHAWAR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Jul, 2020 ) :The recently constructed Squash Complex at Manora Cadet College Sindh by Pakistan Navy named after legendary and stroke master Qamar Zaman in recognition of his services to the squash of Pakistan.

It is a great honored for me that Chief of the Naval Staff and members of the board of the Governor of Pakistan Navy proposed and approved my name for the excellently built Squash Complex by Pakistan Navy and was inaugurated by Naval Chief Admiral Zafar Mehmood Abbas on Monday, last, said Qamar Zaman when contacted.

Qamar Zaman said that the Squash Complex was constructed inside Manora Cadet College Sindh and is certainly good to produce talented players in the game. In a written statement of the BOG of the College over the Complex, says Squash Court named after Qamar Zaman, a famous professional squash player of Pakistan. He was one of the best squash players of his time. Qamar Zaman was born in Quetta, Balochistan on April 11, 1952. He was one of the leading players in the game during the 1970s and 1980s. His biggest triumph was winning the British Open in 1975. Qamar Zaman started his professional squash career in 1968 by winning the Pakistan Junior Squash Championship. On his first trip to the UK in 1973, he reached the semi-final of the British Amateur Championship. In 1974, he reached the semi-finals of the British Open and won the Australia Amateur Championship.

In the 1975 British Open, Qamar beat the defending Champion Geoff Hunt of Australia in the quarterfinals and went on to win the title beating his fellow Pakistani player Gogi Allauddin in the final. After winning the title, Qamar became the number one player in the world, taking over the reins from Australia Geoff Hunt. However, the supremacy of Qamar in squash did not last for long, after losing three times to Hunt in the World Open, he was also beaten once by Jahangir Khan in the final of the World Open in 1984.

In recognition of his service to Pakistan and the game of squash, the name of this Squash Complex was proposed and approved as Qamar Zaman Squash Complex in the 15th BOG meeting of the college held on 19 Feb 2020.

Subsequently, Zaman reached the British Open final on four further occasions. He was runner-up to Hunt in 1978, 1979 and 1980, and to Jahangir Khan in 1984. He was also runner-up at the World Open four times, losing to Hunt in the finals of 1976, 1979 and 1980, and to Jahangir in 1984.

Qamar Zaman won over 100 international squash events in his 19 years long international career and remained number one in 1975, 1978 and 1980s.

He also remained number two for 11 years.

He was awarded the Presidential Pride of Performance Award, Sportsman of the Year and several other awards.

Qamar Zaman remained the President of Pakistan International Airlines Officer Union for 10 years, Senior Vice-President of Asian Squash Federation and Vice President of Pakistan Squash Federation.

Qamar also lauded Pakistan Squash Federation for introducing online coaching courses to hunt new coaches. He said ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan which halted all sports activities, PSF has remained committed in engaging the players, coaches and trainers to stay connected with squash activities so that a certain level of physical activities are maintained while staying within the bounds of COVID restrictions. PSF has already been conducting online physical training of players since March this year through Zoom application because of which the participants have been able to maintain a certain level of physical fitness.

As part of faculty development, he said, it was the vision of President and Senior Vice President, PSF that apart from players' development, PSF may introduce opportunities for development of coaches in Pakistan. He said PSF has arranged PSF Level-1 Squash Coaching Course from July 20, 2020, which would last till July 28, 2020. Owing to the restrictions of COVID-19 this course is being conducted on-Line through Zoom Application where all participants can interact and understand each other easily, he informed.

He said, after Level-1, PSF would also conduct further advance level courses on the same pattern in near future. Such coaching courses, he said, are also conducted by other countries all over the world and PSF would continue to conduct more courses of Level-II and Level-III in future as well.

It is expected that this activity would help PSF to increase the pool of coaches in Pakistan and raise their qualification level in the coaching profession. Moreover, these courses, he said, will equally provide an opportunity to the amateurs to gain professional experience and utilize it in a better way to promote and expand the game of squash at grass roots level.

These are Pakistan level courses and hopefully such courses would provide a platform to Pakistani players, trainers, coaches and amateurs to attend coaching courses of various levels organized by Asian Squash Federation and World Squash Federation and increase their professional knowledge, qualification in the field of coaching. He said, in future, PSF also intends to hold ASF and WSF coaching courses in Pakistan.