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The Winners of the Dewan Housing Squash Challenge pose with the sponsors, Chief guest Mike Ferreira. The winners were Chandrakant Pawar (Professionals) Parineeta Chaudhari (Women) and Akhil Behl (Men) |
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A LIFETIME IN SQUASH |
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Always the bridesmaid,
seldom the bride. That’s been the fate of Faiz Mohamad in the
professionals events of the leading squash tournaments. That’s how he
has set a record of 11 runners-up trophies in the CCI championships of
Western India and a fair number in the National where Shyamlal Verma
always used to come in his way. But talk to Faiz about
that and you will know that this fact does not worry him at all. For, his
main job was to teach people to play the game and not win titles. And if
you take that yardstick, Faiz has been a winner all the way. He has been a great
motivator for club players to take to the game and not give it up because
of its toughness. Faiz began playing at the age of 14 under Jamal Din, the
famous professional who was his brother-in-law. It was at the Kalyan
British Club. Then he moved with him to the Deolali Officers Mess and
finally to College of Military Engineering Pune. In1957, Jamal Din left
for London and Faiz joined the Cricket Club of India. Good professionals were
only a handful in the country and Faiz kept getting and accepting good
offers, So he moved to the Navy in 1959 and in 1965 to the U. S. Club
where he was head coach in squash, tennis and badminton, something of a
Nasurullah Khan, the father of Rahmat Khan. Otters Club lured Faiz
in 1973 and he spent six enjoyable years there. Otters veterans like
Aubrey Pereira, Harry Singh, Suyog Diwivedi, Ajay Chawla have high regard
for Faiz. From Otters the next
stop was Playmate Club at SeaRock Hotel. Here a different aura was there
with the film crowd coming to the club to tone up their bodies. They
played squash with all seriousness thanks to Faiz’s involvement. Players
like Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Naseeruddin Shah, Mazhar Khan, Imatiaz Khan
and Salman Khan learnt to swing the racket the right way thanks to Faiz.
In 1988, it was time for another hop and the last stop for Faiz. He
switched to The Resort at Aksa and worked out with the guests there till
retirement in 1991. Carrying on his good work are his three sons. Riyaz
Mohamed is a confident young man, doing good work as pro at Centaur Hotel,
Juhu. He is a key member of the Maharashtra Squash Professionals and the
ISP. Siraj works at the SeaRock Hotel, while the youngest, Ajaz Mohamed, works at the latest addition to the city’s squash scene, Willington Catholic Gymkhana. |
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| WILL POWER | ||
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Different things have
happened in the history of squash and there will always be some incident
happening to motivate and set examples for the squash players who want to
achieve goals in their lives. One such example goes back in history. It
was the match of the Dunlop Open Championship at Lansdowne Club (London).
Roshan Khan (Jahangir’s father) was playing against Azam Khan. Roshan
Khan was 2-0 up when Azam’s backhand volley hit Roshan Khan on the
mouth. Roshan was on the floor with blood pouring out of his mouth, He was
taken out of the court and the doctor attended to him, Roshan had lost
seven teeth which had to be pulled out. The doctor showed one finger and
asked how many. Roshan couldn’t see properly and said two fingers.
Medically Roshan was not fit to go on the court but his elder brother and
his coach great Nasrullah Khan interrupted and asked ”Roshan can you see
the ball”? Roshan said yes. ”Then there is no excuse”, Nasrullah
replied, This was the battle for pride, A Pathan was injured. An injured
Pathan becomes more dangerous . Roshan went on the court promising his
coach he will fight. He lost 3rd and 4th game keeping a handkerchief in
his mouth so that the blood didn’t fall on the court and won 5th game to
make history. He lost seven teeth but not his pride and the championship. The Duke of Edinburgh presented the trophy to the amazing Khan who set an example of WILL POWER. |
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