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Jahangir Khan 555: The Untold Story Behind Squash's Invincible Champion and Sport’s Greatest Unbeaten Run
From 1981 to 1986, Pakistani squash great Jahangir Khan went undefeated to herald the longest unbeaten run in world sport until his streak came to an end at the 1986 World Championships. In the 30th anniversary year to mark his unmatched run, Jahangir Khan 555: The Untold Story Behind Squash's Invincible Champion and Sport's Greatest Unbeaten Run dissects his early upbringing, how the then 17-year-old embarked on the five-year run following the tragic death of his brother, the pressure he ultimately faced to succeed from an expectant Pakistani nation and the extent his rivals went to even to win a game off this remarkable squash genius. The book will also reveal the myth behind his magical mark of 555 unbeaten matches, and why the record books will have to be rewritten.
288 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2017
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February 9, 2021What Jahangir Khan managed to achieve in the game of squash,is scarcely believable.He remained unbeaten for five and a half years.The news of his victories was no longer news.
After he lost one match after those five years,that became news.But then squash is not a glamorous sport,like say,tennis.It is another matter that physically it is one of the toughest games to play,requiring great fitness.
But it has a limited following,so one of the greatest achievements in the annals of all sport,virtually went unnoticed by most of the world.
Squash's invincible champion didn't have it easy to begin with.A sickly child,he was forbidden to play for the sake of his health.But he persisted,and was World Amateur champion at 15 !
Then,tragedy struck.His elder brother,Torsam Khan,a young man of 28,collapsed during a match in Australia and died of a heart attack on the court.Squash can really be rough on those with ailing hearts.
This could easily have spelled the end for Jehangir's career.Instead,the death of his brother spurred him on.
He redoubled his grueling training regime. That training required a superhuman effort,so intense was it,and a singular focus,to the exclusion of all else.
It paid off,he was world champion at 17,defeating Geoff Hunt the Australian champion,who was then twice his age.Hunt had kept all Pakistani challengers at bay till then.
In a sport,which requires a supreme level of fitness,Jehangir became invincible for five and a half years and 555 matches !
An incredible story,but not known to many.
After he lost one match after those five years,that became news.But then squash is not a glamorous sport,like say,tennis.It is another matter that physically it is one of the toughest games to play,requiring great fitness.
But it has a limited following,so one of the greatest achievements in the annals of all sport,virtually went unnoticed by most of the world.
Squash's invincible champion didn't have it easy to begin with.A sickly child,he was forbidden to play for the sake of his health.But he persisted,and was World Amateur champion at 15 !
Then,tragedy struck.His elder brother,Torsam Khan,a young man of 28,collapsed during a match in Australia and died of a heart attack on the court.Squash can really be rough on those with ailing hearts.
This could easily have spelled the end for Jehangir's career.Instead,the death of his brother spurred him on.
He redoubled his grueling training regime. That training required a superhuman effort,so intense was it,and a singular focus,to the exclusion of all else.
It paid off,he was world champion at 17,defeating Geoff Hunt the Australian champion,who was then twice his age.Hunt had kept all Pakistani challengers at bay till then.
In a sport,which requires a supreme level of fitness,Jehangir became invincible for five and a half years and 555 matches !
An incredible story,but not known to many.
December 4, 2019
Jahangir Khan the great! What a book! Great insight into his journey on becoming a legend.
February 8, 2021
An incredible book about an incredible human being. Jahangir Khan was from a squash background but after the loss of his older brother he promised that he would be world champion one day and he was from a very young age. He accumulated 555 consecutive wins which is one of the greatest winning streaks in history of any sport, if not the greatest. What is incredible was his training regime which, at peak, he executed 6 days a week. The level of fitness he would have been able to achieve is alien like. The book spoke about his psychology and his physical training and how many challengers came and went but none were able to defeat him for almost 5.5 years! What an inspiration and what a true gentleman also of the game. I often joke about the work ethic of people from that part of the world (I can, I'm from the same part!) and I often call them a lazy bunch of Jhookis but I don’t think I would have been able to live a week in this guy’s world that he inhabited for 5.5 years. Incredible individual. Here are the best bits from the book:
• All he ever talked about was discipline discipline discipline. I don’t know whether it was instilled in him by his family, but it was in his nature to work hard and be respectful. When that fear of failure comes in you start losing and panic. It’s not just sport but in life or relationships. If you fear something you start to panic as its all you worry about. Maybe he was naturally good at the psychology side and really didn’t fear failure. Maybe it was part of his religious beliefs and the calmness.
• Jahangir had a simple but all-consuming motivation, to honour the promise that he had made to his family and to his late brother; he was prepared to put in more work than any other squash player in history.
• They don’t have the focus and they want success overnight. I tell them there are no short cuts. They have the talent, but they don’t want to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning.
• Since high mileage training often led to decreased flexibility, Jahangir’s results were expected to be lower than average. However, as he stood on a raised platform and was careful not to release his knees, Jahangir was able to reach 14cm below his toes.
• There are many people aged 40 and above, who would prefer sport to remain a leisure pursuit rather than a pursuit of absolute excellence and victory.
• His 6-day training programme was a tough one even for a 16-year-old. He was awake and out of bed at 6am running ten miles before breakfast. An hour on court alone at Wembley honing his drills and skills was followed by rest at home before afternoon practise with Rahmat. His 10-mile runs would often be followed by 400 m sprints, 20 in total all under 75 seconds with 60 seconds of rest in between.
• Rahmat made him simulate a 5th game doing squat thrusts, star jumps and skipping for the next 30 minutes non-stop.
• At the end of the day he would be so tired, that after having his dinner he would go straight to bed. Even then I told him to look at the ceiling. I told him to imagine it’s a rectangle just like a squash court he had to look at the four corners and imagine moving his opponent around these corners, and when he went to sleep he would be dreaming about squash and one day we would make that dream come true.
• Playing against Azam, Roshan was 2 games up when a backhand volley from Azzam’s racket hit Roshan in the mouth. He immediately had 7 teeth pulled out. So the story goes that the doctor asked how many fingers he was holding gup which was two. One came the reply. Without being fit to continue his father quickly intervened and asked if he could see the ball not the doctors’ fingers. There was a nod. Then his father responded that his son could continue.
• The one thing I would do is never to run on the roads. It would be soft ground, perhaps sand dunes with a mile sprint.
• In the 1960s Hashim moved to Detroit, where he coached squash at the uptown athletic club. He later took up a similar position in Denver, having decided that the Colorado climate would be better for his wife’s rheumatoid arthritis. He continued to play into his 90s and died in 2014 aged apparently 100.
• Show him a pain barrier and he will go through it.
• Winning stimulates confidence, which stimulates arrogance, which stimulates an unbeatable attitude in your own environment and feelings. If he had been able to maintain that package together, he may have gone on to win unbeaten for several more years.
• But how many players or even sportsmen were in effect plying their own trade not for themselves but for others. Father brother and country. Jahangir had thus produced a powerful statement.
• All he ever talked about was discipline discipline discipline. I don’t know whether it was instilled in him by his family, but it was in his nature to work hard and be respectful. When that fear of failure comes in you start losing and panic. It’s not just sport but in life or relationships. If you fear something you start to panic as its all you worry about. Maybe he was naturally good at the psychology side and really didn’t fear failure. Maybe it was part of his religious beliefs and the calmness.
• Jahangir had a simple but all-consuming motivation, to honour the promise that he had made to his family and to his late brother; he was prepared to put in more work than any other squash player in history.
• They don’t have the focus and they want success overnight. I tell them there are no short cuts. They have the talent, but they don’t want to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning.
• Since high mileage training often led to decreased flexibility, Jahangir’s results were expected to be lower than average. However, as he stood on a raised platform and was careful not to release his knees, Jahangir was able to reach 14cm below his toes.
• There are many people aged 40 and above, who would prefer sport to remain a leisure pursuit rather than a pursuit of absolute excellence and victory.
• His 6-day training programme was a tough one even for a 16-year-old. He was awake and out of bed at 6am running ten miles before breakfast. An hour on court alone at Wembley honing his drills and skills was followed by rest at home before afternoon practise with Rahmat. His 10-mile runs would often be followed by 400 m sprints, 20 in total all under 75 seconds with 60 seconds of rest in between.
• Rahmat made him simulate a 5th game doing squat thrusts, star jumps and skipping for the next 30 minutes non-stop.
• At the end of the day he would be so tired, that after having his dinner he would go straight to bed. Even then I told him to look at the ceiling. I told him to imagine it’s a rectangle just like a squash court he had to look at the four corners and imagine moving his opponent around these corners, and when he went to sleep he would be dreaming about squash and one day we would make that dream come true.
• Playing against Azam, Roshan was 2 games up when a backhand volley from Azzam’s racket hit Roshan in the mouth. He immediately had 7 teeth pulled out. So the story goes that the doctor asked how many fingers he was holding gup which was two. One came the reply. Without being fit to continue his father quickly intervened and asked if he could see the ball not the doctors’ fingers. There was a nod. Then his father responded that his son could continue.
• The one thing I would do is never to run on the roads. It would be soft ground, perhaps sand dunes with a mile sprint.
• In the 1960s Hashim moved to Detroit, where he coached squash at the uptown athletic club. He later took up a similar position in Denver, having decided that the Colorado climate would be better for his wife’s rheumatoid arthritis. He continued to play into his 90s and died in 2014 aged apparently 100.
• Show him a pain barrier and he will go through it.
• Winning stimulates confidence, which stimulates arrogance, which stimulates an unbeatable attitude in your own environment and feelings. If he had been able to maintain that package together, he may have gone on to win unbeaten for several more years.
• But how many players or even sportsmen were in effect plying their own trade not for themselves but for others. Father brother and country. Jahangir had thus produced a powerful statement.
August 9, 2025
i gave this book 4 stars as it was an overall pleasant read, nick-lined with golden nuggets of information about the unseen world of squash for me, especially how long ago it was. my favorite bit was where it talks about the amount of training he did, and how long he had been doing it for since the ripe age of 17 years of age. it also shows almost his raisin detre as to why he became such a global superstar, due to the passing of his brother Torsam. id recommend this book to aspiring athletes, and especially solo sports like boxing, because in the book you could definitely get an atmosphere of the pressure that lay on Jahangir's shoulders in order to maintain at his incredible level was.
November 24, 2023
Good write-up about JK, the greatest squash player ever.
March 2, 2017
Fantastic! Excellent accounting of a legend' career and insight into arguably the greatest athlete and sportsman to ever grace professional sports. A must for all squash fans and sports fans.
January 5, 2017
A fascinating read about the greatest squash player of all time. With input not only from the author but many of the top professionals of the time, and indeed the great man himself. There are so many interesting facts about his life and his career that you just couldn't appreciate without this book. Having only just been born by the time of his retirement, it adds some mystique that all i can see of him is some limited and poor quality footage on youtube. The knowledge gained in this book make those clips feel far more complete.
January 10, 2017
True Champion
A great insight into the life of a true champion of squash...too far back for me to have ever watched his games live but I look forward to digging up some old videos archives now I can appreciate the background and history of this incredible athlete.
A great insight into the life of a true champion of squash...too far back for me to have ever watched his games live but I look forward to digging up some old videos archives now I can appreciate the background and history of this incredible athlete.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews