Pakistani Cricket Captain Prefers Son to Wield Squash Racket Wednesday, Sep 23 2009
Recreation Info and Sports Parlor 5:57 am
Younis Khan, the cricket captain for Pakistan, revealed in an interview that he prefers his son not to follow his footsteps. However, he clarified that he wants his son to venture to sports, but not his sports. He wants him to wield a squash racket and become a champion player one day.
In the interview, Khan said that Pakistan had been a squash powerhouse but in the past years, the sport’s popularity has declined due to the absence of top players in the country.
Khan also encouraged other parents to encourage their children to venture to sports outside of cricket such as football, hockey and squash. It would give Khan great pride if his son will become a world champion in the aforementioned racket sport.
Past squash champions include Jansher Khan, Jahangir Khan and Hashim Khan. Most of the top champions came from Peshawar, Younis’s home city.
The absence of top Pakistani squash champions paved way for new champions hailing from France, Australia, England, Egypt and Malaysia.
Younis also said that football should be cultivated in the country because this is the most popular sport and chances are, most kids would prefer playing this sport.
He invited George Kottan, the country’s football coach, at an ICC Champions Trophy national training camp earlier this month. The latter then proposed to have an exhibition football match between the two teams in order to raise awareness on football.
Despite his affiliation for cricket, Younis will become part of the Pakistani delegation in next year’s FIFA World Cup which takes place in South Africa. This after the Pakistan Football Federation invited Younis to help them raise the profile of Pakistan football.
