No, this post is not about the Sharukh Khans or Salman Khans of Bollywood. They aren’t the only Khan’s out there you know!
This post is about the legendary Khans of Pakistan. No! Not Imran Khan or Shahid Khan Afridi either!
I am speaking of course of none other than: Jahangir Khan and Jansher khan; the legendary Squash Champions from Pakistan! Squash players with no equal, whose records are virtually unbreakable and their styles unmatched.
Let’s take a step back and analyze how great these champions were.
How do you determine the greatest of all athletes?
Forget squash for a moment. Let’s talk about some other games.
What in your opinion is the longest winning streak of a football team?
For how many years has a team or individual dominated one sport?
Klose has the highest number of goals scored in a football world cup but he still isn’t considered legendary. Maradona and Pele are both considered legendary; however how many championships do they have between them? 7 or 8 maybe?
Now let’s take a look at the records of Jahangir and Jahansher Khan:
Jahangir Khan’s Track Record:
- Between 1981 to 1986, the legendary Mr. Khan remained unbeaten in 555 matches and 4 World Open championships!
- Jahangir’s winning streak is the longest of any top level athlete as is confirmed by the Guinness Book of world records.
- At age 17, Jahangir was the youngest ever winner of the World Open.
- Jahangir has won six World Open trophies and, between 1982 to 1991, he won 10 British Open titles in a row. He is the only player in squash who dominated as number one in both international and North American hardball squash at the same time.
- He also holds the record of being the first player to win World Open Squash Championships without dropping a game.
- Jahansher Khan won a total of 99 professional titles and was ranked the World’s No. 1 for over 10 years.
- He was unmatched for the 10 years he was ranked World No. 1
- He dominated the British Open as well with six titles to his name
Jahansher Khan’s Track Record
The two Khans ruled over the game of squash like no other player, team, or country has ever ruled any sport.
So to all those diehard football fans who think there is nothing beyond the likes of Maradona and Pele, think again!
Mr. Jahangir is considered by many to be the world’s finest athlete and greatest squash player who ever lived. The rest consider Mr. Jahansher to be the greatest squash player.
The Khan dominance of world squash began with Jahangir in 1979 and ended in the late 1990’s when Jahansher finally lost to Peter Nicol. That is 19 years of dominance by one single country: Pakistan.
Has any other country ever been able to dominate a single sport like this?
Kabaadi is played in limited countries india, Pakistan, iran, bangladesh n sri Lanka n in other countries with the citizens players of these countries whereas squash is played in a lot of countries.
Obviously, squash was an important sport in Pakistan. Similarly, India had dominated Hockey (which was an Olympic sport) winning over 24yrs! And, of course, there is Kabodi where there has always has been only one team for more than a century! USA can claim a number of sports as only they play those sports such a American Football.
India in kabaddi has been unbetable for don’t know how many centuries…. Gama pahlewaan was unbeatable for his whole life…. This is few examples from my limited knowledge…. Casius clay was also some one worth mentioning…. Neeways..good to know about champions like the two khans …m sure their achievement is worth more given they were from Pakistan n surely would have faced great limitations in training and facilities compared to western players who get more facilities … Both worth mentioning at world stage…