PSA firm on holding World Open in Mumbai

An immediate fall-out of the belligerent stance adopted by the Sena has been thecancellation of Pakistani eight-time world champion Jansher Khan’s proposed coaching in Mumbai from May 8-10 at the invitation of the Indian Squash Professionals.

Though Mr Nimick, understandably, downplayed the threat to the World Open, he was nevertheless unambiguous when he said: “I’m abreast of the situation prevailing in Mumbai. While the success of the championship is important, the safety of the players would be our paramount consideration.”

Asked what would be the likely PSA course of action if the hostile atmosphere persisted and the World Championship was just a month or two away, Mr Nimick exercised caution while saying: “It’s an hypothetical situation. I would need to talk the government agencies and the promoters of the championship to assess the potential danger to players before arriving at any decision.”

Late last night, Satinder Pal Bajwa, the manager of Jansher, expressed his concern while speaking to this reporter from his London residence. “As Jansher’s manager, I would beobliged to enlighten him of the dangerous position he could find himself in Mumbai. It would then be his decision (to tour India or not). Obviously, the Ghulam Ali (a reference to the Sena’s violent cancellation of the ghazal singer’s concert here on Sunday) incident is not very pleasant,” he explained.

Bajwa said what the PSA could possibly do is to conduct the World Open qualifying round matches elsewhere. “It has happened before when the qualies were in England and the main event in the Middle East. That was, of course, for financial reasons,” he pointed out.

When quizzed how that would solve Jansher’s problem or if more Pakistanis coming through the qualifying rounds, Bajwa said: “Then it’s a bigger issue. The PSA should monitor the situation closely.”

The Mahindra World Open will have a main draw of 64 — 56 direct entries and eight coming through a qualifying draw of 32. There is every possibility that a few of the Pakistanis may get through the qualies as the new PSA world rankings slatedfor release tomorrow, has as many as 12 Pakistanis in the top 100: Jansher is at No 2, followed by Amjad Khan (27), Zubair Jahan-Khan (30), Mir Zaman Gul (41), Zarak Jahan-Khan (47), Kashik Shuja (51), Muhammad Hussain (62), Kumail Mahmood (67), Shamsul Islam Khan (81), Umar Zaman (87), Ijaz Azmat (88) and Mohammed Hamayum Khan (100).

Bajwa said he is unable to track Jansher and believes he could be somewhere in Lahore in connection with his knee surgery, which is likely to render him immobile for 7-8 days.

“Basically we were going to use the Mumbai camps as a build-up for this year’s World Open. Now that the camps are not possible in the given environment, it’s better that he is through with surgery,” Bajwa said.

Yesterday, Jansher was reported to have said in Karachi that if he gets the opportunity “I will personally meet Mr Bal Thackeray and try to make him understand that we are brothers. Politics has nothing to do with sports. Rather sports helps to smoothen the relationship ofpolitics.”

Bajwa echoed the Pakistani legend’s feelings by saying, “Look what Jansher is trying to tell Mr Thackeray is that sport has no barriers.”

Bajwa is right. Though he is an Indian, he has had a long and fruitful association as a manager with Jansher. And in the city, we have Rehmat Khan — coach of the legendary Jahangir Khan — employed by the Squash Rackets Association of Mumbai, guiding the fortunes of up and coming players for the last one year.