Nephew of famous former British Open champion Qamar Zaman.

In 2000, he is ranked 126
in the world. In 2002, 24.

Then he slips down to 43.

He is now back to 35.

Ups and downs.
In and out.
And a comeback.

At 22 years old.

SHAHID ZAMAN

Remember the name Shahid Zaman though. The onlooking Jahangir said, "this boy is fast - he's destined to go far - and quickly!"  His uncle Qamar would be proud.

Robert Edwards,
Qatar Classic 2001

One of the fast-rising band of Pakistani squash players,
Shahid Zaman is now based in England.

Framboise talks to Shahid himself,
his coach, manager and mentor.

From Pakistan to England ...

This building is the Balochistan's provincial assembly hall,
in the background the mountain called in local language
"Char shakh " meaning "four tops".

Shahid
the player

How many brothers and sisters?
I have four brothers and two sisters.

Are they still in Pakistan?
Yes, except for my younger brother, who lives in London, and who I see quite often.

Do you live with your brother?
No, I live with Uncle [meaning somebody older than you are, usually from your family, whom you love and respect, in this case Mo Yasin, his coach].

The first time you arrived
in England, what was
most difficult for you?
Well, I didn’t speak a word of English when I arrived in 1997! I met Linda Davie in Sheffield. I was very young then, just 15, and I was competing in the under 16 competition.

As I came from Pakistan all by myself, communicating was very difficult for me. Linda helped me a lot, she seemed to understand everything I said! But that language problem didn’t prevent me from arriving in the final!

What was your first
impression of England?
I arrived on New Year’s Eve, and it was beautiful everywhere, but what really amazed me, was the television programs!

Now that your English has improved tremendously, do you find life in England difficult?
Not at all! In Pakistan, I come from Quetta, in the North of Pakistan. We have a lot of mountains, a lot of snow, it’s very very cold in winter. So I quite enjoy English weather.

What? Where did you live, in the North Pole?... Seriously, apart from the weather, do you find it difficult to live over here?
When I came here the first time, yes, it was difficult to adapt, but now, I’ve been coming to England 20, 30 times, so, I’m fine now. And you know, I came here to train, I came here to become a good player, and that’s all I see at the moment. The rest doesn’t matter.

Financially,
how do you survive?
I have some income from PSA tournaments, when I get good results, like when I arrive in the final of the COAS International in Islamabad, Pakistan, only to lose to Adrian Grant in 5 set, 15/12 in the 5th, and from the National League (I play for Manchester Northern in the North West Counties League).

Otherwise, I’m staying with Uncle (Mo Yasin), who is a very generous man, and doesn’t ask me for any money in return.

I was told that you had put
on a lot of weight on a 2 year period. Is there a reason for that?
Yes, basically, I was having a bad time back in Pakistan with personal problems, I was very depressed, very stressed, so I decided to get away from there and come here to try and regain my world ranking.

I saw you back a few weeks ago, and it seems that already, you have lost quite a lot of weight…
I have, I have, it’s because I’ve been training hard.

Mo is killing you, isn’t he?
[Shahid and Mo Yasin laugh]
You see, one day, I want to be number one, inch’ Allah [God Willing], so if I train hard, if I work hard and inch’ Allah I will. So that is why I’m here.

What is your ambition
for the next year?
I want to be in the top 5.

And by the time you are 25,
in 4 years, where do you
see yourself?
I hope I will be married by then! My mother and father told me that, if I like someone, I’ll have to introduce her to them, whether she lives here or in Pakistan, and that they would talk it over. But at the moment, my career comes first!

Shahid, are you happy now?
Yes, I’m happy, I feel very free. I’m very happy!

Since when have you been taking care of Shahid?
I set my company up in January 2004. The players I represent primarily are Lee Beachill, James Willstrop, Anthony Ricketts, Peter Barker and Adrian Grant. A few months ago, Linda Davie came to me and said that Shahid needed some help. Shahid is somebody with Dunlop I have been with a long time. I think he deserves a chance, I think he’s got the ability, he just hasn’t had the right direction. So what I said was that I was going to help him, and should his career develop, I would then take him more under my wing. At the moment, it’s more of a flexible arrangement. Once he gets to the top ten players, I would take him on on a full time basis.

How would you describe your position vis-à-vis Shahid?
With Lee, James and the other players is that we already have equipment supply contracts in place, so Lee is with Dunlop, Hi-Tec, E-squash, James is with Hi-Tec and E-squash etc, so the opportunity there is to look for sponsors from outside of the sport and to look at promoting them at a wider scale. With Shahid, it’s very different because he doesn’t have those basics blocs in place, so the first step is to say, well, let’s put a contract in place, the footwear, the clothing, the rackets, which, if you develop in the game, will give you the monetary return. Those contracts are geared to him achieving the top ten rankings. So as soon as he achieves the top ten rankings, he will then receive bigger contracts and that’s when our management player relationship will be more formalised.

What is your next step?
My job now is to try and to raise his profile, so hopefully, in a year’s time, when he gets into the top ten, no only is he a good player, but he also has a higher profile as well.

How do you 'raise a player’s profile'?
For example, we set up a player’s website. You see a lot of players wearing T-shirts with their website on. Also cooperation with people like Hi-Tec, Dunlop.

What do you think of Shahid from a squash point of view?
He is good. He has put a lot of weight on, and he struggles with the direction and he is probably being guilty of just listening to too many people. He doesn’t speak good English, he can be easily misguided, and deep down, I like him. When I set my company up, I always said that I’ll only work with people who I’ll like. If that means I don’t like the world number 1 personally, I won’t work with him. If it means I like the world number 40, I’ll work with him. I think that to promote someone, it must be more than just ranking. Fundamentally, Shahid is a nice kid and I would hate to see him misguided. If I can play a small part in helping to put the basics together, fantastic.

What are his faults?
I believe that he doesn’t have a weapon. All the top players have a weapon. Peter Nicol, it’s his ability to retrieve; John White, he has got the shots; Lee Beachill, his ability to change the pace. Shahid has everything, but he doesn’t have a weapon. As soon as he develops that weapon, and has a belief in that weapon, then, he will be able to establish himself.

What does Shahid need right now?
He needs the right off court support, day to day he needs someone to train with, and quality people to play against. He has got to be in that right environment. All the players need a team around them. What I don’t want to do is over promise to Shahid. We have got to find out if he wants it enough. If he wants it, he’ll do the work, he’ll do the training. His pedigree, his family, is second to none.

He has got a wonderful touch, he has got a tremendous amount of talent, he has got everything there. He just needs to have belief.