Number of squash referees declines

KARACHI: The number of Asian referees in the list of World Squash Federation’s Referees has declined from nine to six, while the number of WSF Referees in the world has also declined from 24 to 20.

“This has left us six short of the target of having 12 WSF Referees by 2015. It will be increasingly challenging to achieve this target with PSA having a strong influence on WSF in wanting to see a small group of referees, whom the players are familiar with,” stated Munir Shah, ASF Referees Director.

He added in the ASF Referees Report 2015 that the Professional Squash Association’s act of using this select number of referees was damaging. “Be that as it may, we have to persevere in developing potential WSF Referees who are keen to continue the hard work in improving their competence, knowledge and match management abilities,” he added.

The current list of WSF Referees in Asia has Mohammad Fayyaz (Hong Kong), Anthony So (Hong Kong), Yogendra Singh (India), K Srikanth (India), and Jamshed Gul and Tahir Khanzada from Pakistan.

A total of 15 clinics were conducted in 2015, attended by 383 people.

Similarly, 12 referees’ assessment exercises were conducted in conjunction with a number of major championships, which were useful in the development of Asian referees in their quest to become Regional Referees and WSF Referees.

The total number of assessments involving Asian referees conducted in Asia during 2011-2015 reached 537, stated Munir, adding that this database would help identify potential National Referees who could aspire to become Regional Referees.

Moreover, he added, the ASF would persevere in implementing the WSF CBTA (Competency-Based Training & Assessment) programme for WSF, Regional and National Referees, which had been endorsed for adoption by all member countries.

Currently, there are 14 Regional Referees in Asia (Asif Khan is the only one from Pakistan for 2015-2017) and there are eight Regional Assessors (Tahir Khanzada is the only one from Pakistan).

It is worth adding here that PSA is conducting a survey these days, seeking feedback from its members regarding the development of refereeing.