Hashim Khan – Google doodle on legendary Pakistani squash player


Devdiscourse News Desk | Karachi | Updated: 04-04-2020 02:03 IST | Created: 04-04-2020 02:03 IST
Hashim Khan – Google doodle on legendary Pakistani squash player
By 28, Hashim Khan became a squash pro and soon after, a national champion of the sport. Image Credit: Google doodle
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Google today honours Hashim Khan, the legendary Pakistani squash player, who is widely revered as one of the sport’s all-time greatest players.

Hashim Khan was born in Nawakille, a small village near Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan, to an ethnically Pashtun family, between 1910 and 1914. He was the second cousin of the two other leading Pakistani players of his time Roshan Khan and Nasrullah Khan, whose sons Rehmat Khan, Torsam Khan and Jahangir Khan are also squash players. His exact birthdate is unknown.

Hashim Khan’s father worked at a British officers’ club with squash courts where the son apprenticed as a ballboy. Learning the ropes of the sport while on his off-hours, Hashim Khan played barefoot on the club’s rough brick courts—an early testament to his tenacity.

By 28, Hashim Khan became a squash pro and soon after, a national champion of the sport. After winning three All-of-India titles, the newly independent government of Pakistan drafted him to represent the country at the 1951 British Open.

In 1950, Abdul Bari, a distant relative of Hashim Khan's who had chosen to remain in Bombay after the Partition of India in 1947, and who Hashim had beaten in several tournaments in India before partition, was sponsored by the Indian Government to play at the British Open where he finished runner-up to the Egyptian player Mahmoud Karim.

This spurred him to seek backing to compete in the British Open the following year. In 1951, when Khan was in his 30s, the government of Pakistan – particularly the Pakistan Air Force – sponsored him for the British Squash Championship. It was the first time Hashim Khan wore shoes on the squash court. He travelled to the UK to play in the British Open, and won the title beating Mahmoud Karim in the final 9–5, 9–0, 9–0.

During his first appearance at the British Open, he was considered squash’s world championship at the time, and went on to take home the grand prize. He returned to Pakistan a national hero with a million people greeting him upon his arrival. This monumental victory became the first hurrah of the Khan family’s squash dynasty.

Hashim Khan died on August 18, 2014 in his home in Aurora, Colorado due to congestive heart failure. Google today pays tribute to the great Pakistani squash player with a fascinating doodle.

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