There is a tremendous amount of pressure when you are a world No. 1 with everyone behind you trying to knock you down. But I always believe you should be enjoying the pressure at the top. It is a case of being able to relax and keep playing the game that got you there in the first place.
Pakistan is rich in sporting talent, but the only thing needed is to have sincere and honest administrators who should be held accountable by the government. Pakistan should be recognised as a sporting nation and not as a terrorist country.
I enjoyed my 15 years at the top, and now I enjoy watching the current crop. What I did, maybe they can't do, and what they do, perhaps I couldn't do. It's like that. I wanted to simply be the best. On a professional level, I wanted to be No. 1, and I worked hard to be that.
Fitness of a top-class squash player is very important, and talent only can't do the job. They have to get training regularly for at least eight hours a day so that they could put some good show in a two-hour match.
You hire a chief executive, pay him, and hold him accountable after a year or two. The time for so-called honorary jobs is over. What Pakistan squash needs is results, and that can only be achieved by professionals.
It wasn't my plan to create such a record. All I did was put in the effort to win every match I played and it went on for weeks, months and years until my defeat to Ross Norman in Toulouse in 1986.
I was very keen on squash. My father used to go to sleep in the afternoon. Normally, in Pakistan, everybody goes to sleep in the afternoon, because it's really hot. I'd go and play without telling anybody.
I wanted to start a proper academy and recruit juniors from all over Pakistan following my retirement after the World Open in 1993 but there was no support.
Let's face it. There is no setup in Pakistan to train and groom young players at the grassroots level in different sports. Those of us who did make a name for ourselves and became champions did it with our own initiative - there was no academy to back us till we reached a certain level on our own.
Squash has the credentials to become an olympic event and our goal is to see the sport in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We are working towards this and will keep trying even if our bid is not successful.
