the squash dynasty
The game of squash, according to the indisputable Oxford Companion to Sports and Games (1976), originated in the mid-19th century at Harrow School, where boys would knock a squishy rubber ball about whilst waiting to play the ‘proper’ game of rackets. Rackets – similar to squash, though played with a rock-hard ball on a slightly larger court – is now only played in public schools and private clubs, Squash, meanwhile, is played worldwide. The popularity of the sport derives largely from one unlikely group of families: the Khans, from Pakistan.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, British forces established a number of squash clubs in the north-west of India. One such club was in Peshawar, where a young Hashim Khan worked as a ball boy. In the evenings when the British officers had retired, Hashim – short, thin, an unpromising athlete – would play against himself, barefoot, late into the night. Through sheer dogged determination, Hashim went on to become first a coach, and then a professional player. He won the first All India championship, the first Pakistan championship and eventually went on to win the British Open not once, not twice, but seven times.
In his definitive Squash: A History of the Game (2003), James Zug writes: “The dream merchants of Hollywood could not make a more romantic story than the rise of Hashim Khan.” His story certainly inspired the Khan family, who went on to dominate the world of squash for almost 50 years, from 1951, when Hashim won his first British open, to 1998, when Jansher Khan – scion of another Khan clan – lost in the final of the British Open to Peter Nichol. Guy Edwards and I were in Cardiff to witness this match and a more bad-tempered defeat is hard to imagine!
The story of the Khan family squash dynasty is told by former Daily Telegraph sports journalist Dicky Rutnagur in Khans Unlimited (1997) – a book strictly for squash bores. A more colourful account can be found on squashsite.co.uk which explains; “Our roots can be traced to the valley of the Khyber Pass. As the defence of the pass seemed dogmatic to the ancient Pashtun, so does being the best at squash seem for a Khan.”
Not for no reason did the great British squash champion Jonah Barrington famously refer to squash as ‘boxing with racquets’. Squash is a tough sport and the Kahn family saw themselves as warriors without equal. Unable to find anyone tough enough to practise against, Hashim trained his younger brother Azam to become his practice partner. By 1954, they were playing against each other in the final of the British Open. Hashim won, though Azam went on to become champion in 1959. And 1960. And 1961. And 1962. Azam also won the US Open in 1962. Briefly reclaiming the family tradition, his granddaughter, Carla Khan, won the Pakistan Open in 2005.
Another famous Khan, Roshan – related to the other Khans by marriage – was also a successful professional player who had two sons, Torsam and Jahangir. Torsam died tragically young in 1979, of a heart attack during a match in Australia. Despite being a sickly weak child, his brother Jahangir took on the Khan mantle: he turned out to be exceptional. Among all the Khans it is Jahangir who might justly be described as the greatest squash player of all time.
Jahangir’s success depended partly upon his legendary fitness regime, which involved long morning runs, gym training, racquet drills and relentless court sprints. He was ferociously fit and went unbeaten as a professional for an astounding five years and eight months from 1981 to 1986. New Zealand’s (and Charters’ own) Ross Norman ended the victorious run. In interviews and in his book Winning Squash (1985) Jahangir explains his philosophy thus: “To be the best, I had to work harder than the rest.”
It’s a long way from a poor village in Peshawar to becoming the greatest sporting family in the world.
