World
Teams EN BREF issue #6Everything you never knew you needed to know about Islamabad
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World
Teams EN BREF issue #6 Everything you never knew you needed to know about Islamabad |
PETRA: A BEAUTY IN ISLAMABAD I must say that
Chris Walker must make a lot of players jealous this week,
as he came here with gorgeous Petra Benova at his arm, and trust me, a lot
of heads are turning (literally) when the lady passes…Petra was playing for her country, the Slovak Republic during the European Team Championships in Germany in the late 90's when she met Chris, who at the time was playing for England. “He wanted to have my phone number, but I was bad, I refused to give it, and the poor man had to track me down all the way to my own country. “Now we are living together in Greenwich, just outside New York.” Originally a trained nurse, Petra got a medical massage therapist diploma when she came to the States, and it’s in that capacity that she accompanied the US Team, all of whom I’m sure must be delighted to be looked after by such a lovely lady… And when I asked Petra to describe Chris, she said “Well, Smiley Face, as he is always wearing those silly T-shirts with smiley faces on it, always happy and Mister Organisation.” Nice couple those two… |
 POLICE… One thing is sure, is that we are feeling extremely well protected around here. An escort where ever we go, a very heavy police presence on the facilities, security check for both buildings and the Marriott…. I must say that the “Bomb disposal squad” car made me jump a bit though… Joke apart, I know that we are in a “sensitive” country at the moment, that if you want to travel round the world, a Pakistan passport will guarantee you long wait at the customs, but I have never been so welcomed in ANY other country in the world. The PSF, the officials, the office, the referees, the players, the juniors, they do not know how to please you.  |
 GERMAN
ON THE UP…You may have noticed that this week, we have received a great amount of help writing wise from many of the coaches and some of the players that have been kind enough to keep us informed of the progress of their team in the event… Well, one of the coaches, Barry Dodson, who has led Germany to that surprising victory against New Zealand, and eventually 10th place, was one of the kind people that took the time to help us out. And I was mentioning his name to David Pearson, the England National Coach, who was all praise for his colleague. “It’s really nice to see the Germans starting to look like a force to be reckoned with, after many years of looking a disheartened team. They now look like a professional outfit again. And for Europe, it’s important to welcome an improved team, both men and ladies, and their newly appointed coach Barry has to be credited for his achievement.” Yes, well done Germany, and keep up the good work, Barry… |
DID IT MOVE FOR YOU???? At
2.50 am this morning, I was dreaming that I was on a boat, but strangely
enough, as I woke up, I was still on the boat.I started thinking where was I, was I in Saudi? did I take a boat to go to Saudi, surely I would remember… And then I realised I was still in my room, in Islamabad, and that my bed was shaking. Can I have a few funny guys pulling a joke on me, and giving a good fright? Now wide awake, the penny finally dropped. This was a telluric shock, oh not a dangerous one, but strong enough to make me understand how strange you feel. As Rahmat had told me that the worst you can do during an earthquake is to walk, as it can damage the balance of the whole body, I turned on the light, and stayed right where I was, thinking calmly that this could be my last day. Not an image came to me, though, nothing really… And after a very long minute or two, it stopped. As nobody in the hotel moved, I thought that I had dreamt the whole thing. It was now 3am, I had still a lot of work to do, I just switched on the computer, and started working. And I received an email from another workaholic who was also awake, and that confirmed that I didn’t dream it. The earth had moved… |
| World Teams EN BREF issue #5 |
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CLINTON, TRAINING WITH LINCOU  Fred Lecomte, the French coach, was telling me that a few days ago,
Thierry was trying to hit the ball, and asked Clinton Leeuw, of the South
African Team, if he wouldn’t mind sharing a court with him. As they would, they ended up playing for about 90 minutes, and Thierry
couldn’t help noticing his sparring partner’s fitness.“You’re not tired at all”, said the Frenchman. “How could I be tired? I’m playing the World Number 1”… |
ANNA, PAKISTAN RISING STAR… You can count on Andrew Shelley to find the Pearl of a story, and today he introduced me to Anna, 12, from Lahore, the youngest member of WISPA.  “She has been a member for only a year, and is part of our “Rising Stars’ program. She and her older sister Sana are already talking to prospective sponsors to encourage events in Pakistan. Clearly a WISPA President in the making! Unfortunately, she trains in poor conditions, the facilities at the Punjab Squash Complex are slightly run down, and we are going to see if we can help Punjab Squash to help her and all the youngsters to get better training conditions and to encourage these new talents. They deserve it.” Anna will be part of the team that will represent Pakistan in the British Junior Open in January, and I am sure she will do herself and her country proud… |
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 YORKSHIRE, HEART OF ENGLISH SQUASH…I was chatting with David Pearson earlier today, while the four England players were training and I commented on the astonishing quality of the boys…Oh come on, The Boss, James, Lee, Nick… How can it get any better than this…? And DP added; "And to think that three of them live within 30 miles of each other in Yorkshire ... and that Peter is classed as a Yorkshireman too!" So, Yorkshire, the English Peshawar????? |
| World Teams EN BREF issue #4 |
SO
MANY COURTS… Those
facilities in Islamabad are quite remarkable you know. We’ve got two main
buildings, side by side. On the left, the Old Building, with a
stupendously beautiful glass court, a bit cold for my taste though, with
behind a room called the “Referee’s room”, nest of the officials and IT
handlings.A corridor away from the glass court, you’ve got an exhibition court, glass backwall, who saw the epic battles between Jahangir and Jansher in particular. And then you have three normal glass backwall courts where players are training on a rota basis. Plus dozens of rooms, corridors, stairs, mini shops (stringing and sports clothing, internet café, etc…)  In
the New Building, it’s a different conception. The glass court is at the
centre of the building, and from its four corners, you can get to the rest
of the facilities, as the office of the PSF/tournament office, the
changing rooms, four backwall glass courts (two that are used for official
matches), a lounge/kitchen area for the players/referees, etc.So you spend your time passing from warm temperature outside to freezing cold glass court to warmth again, then sort of ok atmosphere in the new building, up, down the stairs, in, out… Keeping ourselves fit I tell you… |
MISSED AGAIN… It seems that although I’ve been living, chatting, arguing, dreaming and writing in English for far too many years now, I still do not get the subtleties of the language, in particular when it comes to accents.  I
was quite proud for example that for once, I was able to understand a
Scottish accent quite well when I was talking to Scotland Coach
Paul Frank until I was told that not only the man was originally from Australia, but
also that his parents were English teachers, and wouldn’t let him get away
with the Aussie accent in favour of an English one.Hopeless, I am, absolutely hopeless…. |
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YES STROKE… As it happens unfortunately on major tournaments, the marking is sometimes a bit approximate, and we had an interesting moment during the Australia/Netherlands match when the marker kept on announcing “yes stroke”. It really threw the players, who had to ask the man to repeat several times the decision, and the spectators couldn’t help giggling, as it became quite comical. The pinnacle was reached when, now totally confused, the poor man announced yet again “yes stroke” whereas the order of the referee was actually “yes let”. Imagine the confusion that followed… Anthony and LJ were not impressed… |
| World Teams EN BREF issue #3 |
SQUASH PAST… Yesterday,
I was telling you about the relationship between Roshan Khan, father of
Jahangir, who was coached by his elder brother, Nasrullah, father of
Rahmat, coach of Jahangir.Are you confused? I’m confused. Anyway, did you know that the first ever Dunlop racquet to have a player’s name on was called Nasrullah Khan? Rahmat’s father designed it, it was a very special racquet, I was told, with a short grip. And it was so remarkable that Dunlop decided to call it in the name of its creator… |
 LUNCH WITH THE BOYS… One of the great advantages of going back to places you’ve already been to, is that you meet old friends. So today, I had a quick lunch under the sun with Imran, my guardian angel who as usual, made sure I was properly looked after. I just love Pakistan… |
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NOT ENJOYING THIS… Yes, I know, it comes with the territory, as they keep on telling me, but still, that “country group stuff” is not what I call fun. Normally, at breakfast for example, or near the courts, everybody sits down with mates from all over the world, and laughs about everything and nothing. But here, all the players sit according to the name of the country they’ve got proudly printed on the back of their jacket.
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KING KHAN IS 42 There
are a lot of reasons why a sane individual would spend day in day out
travelling around the world along with a bunch of lunatics whose way of
earning a living is to run like headless chickens in a waterless aquarium.
Money as we all know is NOT one of them. But meeting great people,
discovering different cultures, realising dreams are good enough reasons I
feel. And talking about dreams, since I saw the King, Mr Jahangir Khan years and years ago, 1986 to be precise, I want to get to know him. Yes, he doesn’t play his magic game anymore, yes his body has cracked up after years and years of unbelievable inhuman astonishing training, yes he has put on weight (actually, he has lost a considerable amount lately), but still, when I have the chance to look at the man, to speak to him, I’m 25 all over again, I’ve got stars in my eyes, and I cannot believe that Jahangir knows that I exist. This man marked an era, changed a sport for ever, and will keep on playing squash in our memories, in our hearts, in our souls, until the end of times. Happy birthday Jahangir. |
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World
Teams EN BREF issue #2 Everything you never knew you needed to know about Islamabad |
 BETH IS IN TOWN… You may remember the name of Beth Rasin. I met the lady in New York, during the ToC, where she was the press officer [New York Portrait]. Well she is in Islamabad with a film crew to make a documentary on Squash Legend Hashim Khan. I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the event…
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I PERSONALLY LIKE IT The title holders Australia are cruelly missing David Palmer, but have a "new" Joe Kneipp. Well not only the man has raised his intensity, his hunger, his general concentration and level of commitment to his game, but he has now gone clean shaven rather than his old 'escaped convict' look …   And I know that nobody asks me my opinion – as if it had ever stopped me giving it anyway – but I think it’s definitely a good move. Now, ask me what I think about my compatriots growing a moustache for the event?????? It didn’t work for the England Cricket Team when they came to Pakistan, now, did it… |
 A
HISTORY LESSON… When
I’ve got the chance of meeting Rahmat Khan, the Junior Coach that
took the Junior Pakistan Team to so many medals in the past few years, and
who you may know as “the Man next to Jahangir", I always learn more and
more about Squash History.  Today,
for example, he was reminding me that the building where the Pakistani
Team was meeting Scotland, also called “the Old Complex” (that one is
amazingly funny, I don’t know ANY country that wouldn’t have it as main
facility), has been named after Jahangir’s father, Roshan Khan, and that
his own father Nasrullah Khan, elder brother of Roshan, was also his
coach…No wonder they perpetuated the family tradition when Rahmat, son of Nasrullah, went on coaching Jahangir, son of Roshan… |
| World Teams EN BREF issue #1 |
| PERFECT
ORGANISATION… I must say I was dreading the arrival/custom/luggage/hotel check-in in Islamabad, due to the large number of players/officials on board… Once again, the Pakistan Federation has done a wonderful job by whizzing the whole bunch of us (we must have been around 80) through the normally very long Islamabad Customs process, packed bags and players in two buses and three Hotel Championship Partner Marriott vans, and got us rather swiftly in the reception of the hotel.  There again, all the rooms had been pre-prepared, and on presentation of your passport/credit card, a key was offered to you in less than three minutes.  And
again tonight, the PSF had organised an Official Dinner and planned to
have drinks at 7.30, presentation/speeches at 8, and food at 9. Well,
guess what. At 9pm sharp, we were all marching toward the lovely buffet….That’s military organisation for you… Impressed, the Frog? You bet… |
THE MAGICIAN STRANDED… Jonathon
Power was NOT a happy bunny when he arrived at the Hong Kong Airport to
take his flight in direction of Islamabad, as he was told that all his
flights (including Saudi) had been cancelled!What happened was that he changed the leg from Qatar to Hong Kong and travelled a few days earlier, but the computer of the Airlines didn’t see it that way at all, and decided it was a no show. Hence the rest of the journey was cancelled. “They put me on standby on the Hong Kong to Dubai, then on the Dubai Islamabad. “For the whole day, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to get to Pakistan in time! I was the last one on the flight, and although I paid for a business class ticket and actually travelled economy, I was so relieved to have finally made it!” And so are we, Jon, a Canadian Team without the Magician? I don’t think so… |
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UPGRADED OR NOT UPGRADED… The
England officials, David Pearson, National Coach, Paul Carter,
his assistant, and adorable Phil Newton, the team physio, were all
due to fly from HK to Hong Kong on economy tickets. But they were slightly
stunned when they realised that Phil had been upgraded to Business. Why?
No idea…“And he left us stranded there, walked off, and never even looked back” declared DP… Placid Phil, as usual, smiled the joke away. What that man hears all day long is just incredible. And he doesn’t mind. An angel I tell you, AN ANGEL! And as far as the upgrade is concerned, the man has been poorly with flu for a few days, so it was as well that he got a bit of comfort… |
SQUASH FLIGHT As we were waiting at gate 20 in Dubai Airport to board the daily flight EK 164 from Dubai to Islamabad last night, we could have organised the Championship there and then! England, Egypt, France, Australia, Canada (top 5 seeds), Germany, Malaysia, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Ireland were happily chatting away, old friends meeting yet again… And when later, we settled down in an absolutely full aircraft, I realised that if something happened to that plane, the world of squash would have never been the same…
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