Mahboob Khan
Hall of Fame
I thought you all will be interested in this story.
Pakistan, as you know, is a cricket-crazy nation. This sport is quite handy and is played in one form or the other in streets, play grounds, roof-tops, or any open space. They can use any ball, and use brickets, wooden planks, as wickets. Every morning when I wake up and look through my bath room glass window, I see kids playing "Cricket". Quite frankly, Cricket has killed all other sports in Pakistan and our Government is also not bothered to develop other sports such as tennis which has a good history. In the Open era that began in 1968, Haroon Rahim was the first Pakistani who made it to the Wimbledon Main Draw after winning his matches in the Qualifying. Haroom Rahim has wins over Jimmy Connors, Tom Gorman, Jeff Browiak, and many top ATP players of the time. He also won two ATP singles titles, but add insult to injury our Government does not know about him and does not know where he is right now.
Aisam ul Haq Qureshi in 2007 won his matches in the Qualification and made it to the Wimbledon Main Draw. In the Newport Hall of Fame ATP event on grass he beat Mardy Fish who has wins over Roger Federer and other top ATP players. Prior to Wimbledon 2007, he beat world number 11, French No. 1, Richard Gasquet in Halle Germany Grass Court event. I always felt that Aisam had what it takes to be world number 1 had he been helped/sponsored when he was 16 years of age and struggling. Now at age 28, Aisam has been sponsored by Pepsico! This is called post-career-sponsorship (you get it when your career is already down the hill).
Nida Waseem is the only Pakistan girl who has wins over Sania Mirza when both were juniors. You do not hear about Nida because she did not get any sponsorship and joined a Law College in U.K. Sania Mirza on the other hand had no problem with sponsors and made it to the WTA circuit.
My daughter, Sarah Mahboob Khan, is Pakistan No. 1 Junior and Women player. In fact, in 2005, at age 14, she was the youngest ever Pakistan's National Women Champion! All those years I have been writing to sponsors but no luck. Finally, when our Cricket was going through a bad patch (poor results, poor players' conduct) we came across the Management of Bank Alfalah who as a starting point agreed to sponsor four ITF Juniors in Syria and Jordan in the month of July. I would like to share this news with you that if you are persistent, believe in hard work, performance-oriented, and keep on writing to sponsors, you will succeed.
Please join me to thank Bank Alfalah!
Pakistan, as you know, is a cricket-crazy nation. This sport is quite handy and is played in one form or the other in streets, play grounds, roof-tops, or any open space. They can use any ball, and use brickets, wooden planks, as wickets. Every morning when I wake up and look through my bath room glass window, I see kids playing "Cricket". Quite frankly, Cricket has killed all other sports in Pakistan and our Government is also not bothered to develop other sports such as tennis which has a good history. In the Open era that began in 1968, Haroon Rahim was the first Pakistani who made it to the Wimbledon Main Draw after winning his matches in the Qualifying. Haroom Rahim has wins over Jimmy Connors, Tom Gorman, Jeff Browiak, and many top ATP players of the time. He also won two ATP singles titles, but add insult to injury our Government does not know about him and does not know where he is right now.
Aisam ul Haq Qureshi in 2007 won his matches in the Qualification and made it to the Wimbledon Main Draw. In the Newport Hall of Fame ATP event on grass he beat Mardy Fish who has wins over Roger Federer and other top ATP players. Prior to Wimbledon 2007, he beat world number 11, French No. 1, Richard Gasquet in Halle Germany Grass Court event. I always felt that Aisam had what it takes to be world number 1 had he been helped/sponsored when he was 16 years of age and struggling. Now at age 28, Aisam has been sponsored by Pepsico! This is called post-career-sponsorship (you get it when your career is already down the hill).
Nida Waseem is the only Pakistan girl who has wins over Sania Mirza when both were juniors. You do not hear about Nida because she did not get any sponsorship and joined a Law College in U.K. Sania Mirza on the other hand had no problem with sponsors and made it to the WTA circuit.
My daughter, Sarah Mahboob Khan, is Pakistan No. 1 Junior and Women player. In fact, in 2005, at age 14, she was the youngest ever Pakistan's National Women Champion! All those years I have been writing to sponsors but no luck. Finally, when our Cricket was going through a bad patch (poor results, poor players' conduct) we came across the Management of Bank Alfalah who as a starting point agreed to sponsor four ITF Juniors in Syria and Jordan in the month of July. I would like to share this news with you that if you are persistent, believe in hard work, performance-oriented, and keep on writing to sponsors, you will succeed.
Please join me to thank Bank Alfalah!
