Jahangir Khan is a former world No. 1 professional squash player from Pakistan, who is considered to be the greatest player in the history of the sport. Born on 10 December 1963 in Karachi, Jahangir is originally from Neway Kelay Payan, Peshawar. During his illustrious career he won the World Open six times and the British Open a record ten times. From 1981 to 1986, he was unbeaten in competitive play. During that time he won 555 matches consecutively, the longest winning streak by any athlete in top-level professional sports as recorded by Guinness World Records. He retired as a player in 1993, and also served as President of the World Squash Federation from 2002 to 2008.
Jahangir was coached initially by his father, Roshan Khan, the 1957 British Open champion, then by his late brother Torsam Khan. After his brother’s sudden death he was coached by his cousin Rehmat Khan, who guided Jahangir through most of his career. Jahangir was physically very weak as a child. Though the doctors had advised him not to take part in any sort of physical activity, after undergoing a couple of hernia operations his father let him play and try out their family game. In 1979, the Pakistan selectors decided not to select Jahangir to play in the World Championships in Australia, judging him too weak from a recent illness. Jahangir decided instead to enter the World Amateur Individual Championship and, at the age of 15, became the youngest-ever winner of that event. In November 1979, Jahangir’s older brother Torsam, who had been one of the leading international squash players in the 1970s, died suddenly of a heart attack during a tournament match in Australia. Torsam’s death profoundly affected Jahangir. He considered quitting the game, but decided to pursue a career in the sport as a tribute to his brother.
In 1981, when he was 17, Jahangir became the youngest winner of the World Open, beating Australia’s Geoff Hunt (the game’s dominant player in the late-1970s) in the final. That tournament marked the start of an unbeaten run which lasted for five years and 555 matches. The hallmark of his play was his incredible fitness and stamina, which Rehmat helped him build up through a punishing training and conditioning regime. Jahangir was quite simply the fittest player in the game, and would wear his opponents down through long rallies played at a furious pace. In 1982, Jahangir astonished everyone by winning the International Squash Players Association Championship without losing a single game. The unbeaten run finally came to end in the final of the World Open in 1986 in Toulouse, France, when Jahangir lost to New Zealand’s Ross Norman.
With his dominance over the international squash game in the first half of the 1980s secure, Jahangir decided to test his ability on the North American hardball squash circuit in 1983-1986. Hardball squash is a North American variant of the game, played on smaller courts with a faster-moving ball. Jahangir played in 13 top-level hardball tournaments during this period, winning 12 of them. He faced the leading American player on the circuit at the time, Mark Talbott, on 11 occasions (all in tournament finals), and won 10 of their encounters. With his domination of both the softball and hardball versions of the game, Jahangir truly cemented his reputation as the world’s greatest squash player. His success in North America is considered by some observers to be among the factors which led to growing interest in the international ‘softball’ version of squash in the continent, and the demise of the hardball game in the late-1980s and 1990s.
At the end of 1986 another Pakistan squash player, Jansher Khan, appeared on the international scene to challenge Jahangir’s domination. Jansher then went on to beat Jahangir in their next eight consecutive encounters and capture the 1987 World Open title. Jahangir did not win the World Open again after 1988, but he continued a stranglehold over the British Open title which he captured a record ten successive times between 1982 and 1991.
Time Magazine has named Jahangir as one of Asia’s Heroes in the last 60 years. Jahangir Khan conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy by London Metropolitan University for his contributions to the sport. Due to his immense and absolute dominance in squash he was nicknamed ‘The Conqueror’.
Published in Daily Times, July 1st , 2017.
