CHENNAI: From nobody to upstart. From upstart to contender. From contender to winner. And from winner to dynasty. This has been the dreamy tale of the Khan family, or rather the history of Pakistan squash. The Khans pioneered it, perpetrated it and sustained it, and gave squash an oriental charm. Pakistan’s squash hegemony begins and ends with the Khans making the family bigger than the game itself. It all began with Hashim Khan, the country’s first-ever gold medallist in any discipline, on whom Josh Easdon and Beth Rasin recently filmed a documentary entitled “An Evening with Hashim Khan and His Friends”. Recounted his grand nephew Rahmatullah Khan, “He was the nation’s first sporting legend. He started off as a ball boy at the Head Stewards Club in Peshawar. He won the first international tournament he participated, the British Open in 1951, at the age of 34. He went on to win seven more, the last when he was 41.”
His brother Azam Khan and cousin Roshan Khan were his contemporaries and with regularity made the British Open finals a family affair. In the 60s, Hashim’s nephews Gul and Mohibullah carried forth the legacy. Roshan’s brother Nasrullah Khan, meanwhile, turned into coaching and mentored another legend Jonah Barrington.
But perhaps Roshan’s greatest contribution to squash was that he fathered Jahangir and the immensely talented Torsam, who suffered a fatal heart-attack. Depressed, Jahangir shifted to London at the age of 15, where his cousin Rahmatullah spruced up the genius in Jahangir. “The skill was there. But to be a champion you need dedication and hard work. He was instrumental in giving the game the status and popularity it enjoys now,” he recollected.
Then came Jansher. Winner of nine British Open titles, once at the expense of Jahangir, he monopolised the 90s. All the same, he was the last of the mercurial Khans. His retirement curtained the five-decade long Pakistani domination. Rahmatullah, now the coach of Kuwait, remarked that Jansher should have ensured someone in the family followed in his footsteps. “He could have done more to groom a successor. If you have one champion, a line of champions would follow. Most of the youngsters these days are focusing on their academics,” he said.