The Pakistanis crumbled to a 1-2 defeat against minnows Denmark to crash out of the qualification race for the second round of the 2011 WSF Men’s World Team Squash Championship in Paderborn, Germany.
The embarrassing loss came after a 3-0 drubbing by Asian rival  Malaysia in a critical Pool E match on Monday.
Its poor showing against Denmark, seeded 17/24 in the 32-nation event, means that Pakistan finished third in the pool behind top-placed Malaysia and Denmark. Since only the top two teams from each group will proceed to the next stage of the competition, Pakistan bowed out of contention in the biennial championship.
It’s a stunning turnaround for a country that used to run roughshod over its rivals during a golden era in which it produced legends like Hashim Khan, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan.
Pakistan has taken  a nosedive in international squash since the exit of Jansher in the late nineties but what happened on Tuesday at the Ahorn-Sport Park in Paderborn was unimaginable.
Even in the worst of times, Pakistan has not flopped so miserably. In the previous edition of the World Team Championship in Denmark, Pakistan finished a respectable fifth position.
But there were warning signs ahead of the German assignment.
Pakistan’s squash authorities were unable to pick the best team for the event. Initially, they even ignored Aamir Atlas Khan – the country’s top player. Aamir was only added to the four-man team at the last moment after he reached the final of this year’s Malaysian Open.
Later, the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) defied all logic by deciding against sending a qualified coach with what was already a pretty weak team. Instead it showed faith in the ‘abilities’ of its secretary – Irfan Asghar – who was sent to Paderborn as Pakistan’s manager.
Just weeks before the Germany assignment, Asghar’s blunder had prevented Pakistan from featuring in the World Junior Championship in Belgium. Pakistan, among the title favorites in Belgium, was denied Belgian visas. It was later learned that the PSF failed to obtain visa letters from the event’s organizers in time because it had been pursuing officials of the World Men’s Team Championship in Germany for the documents. On Tuesday, it was Pakistan that suffered. Yasir Butt gave Pakistan a winning start in their match against Denmark when he defeated Rasmus Nielsen 2-11, 11-4, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9 in 53 minutes. But Morten Sorensen defeated Waqar Mehboob 3-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-8 in 47 minutes to make it 1-1.
Aamir Atlas failed to give his best when it mattered most. Kristian Frost Olesen beat him 11-2, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9 in 39 minutes to take Denmark into the last 16 of the championship.