KARACHI: Pakistan Squash Federation has taken a bizarre step of introducing huge sum for age tests that is to be paid by junior players or their parents.
The federation has emailed all its affiliated units the participation details for the Quaid-e-Azam PSA Closed Satellite Squash scheduled next month in Islamabad.
For taking part in this event, the federation has informed the participants that “If anybody [players or parents] raises an objection on the age of other players, an amount of Rs 20,000 has to be paid to PSF in advance (before Feb 25) for the arrangement of medical test and service charges of the concerned player. No on-spot objection would be accepted for age verification”.
The introduction of this strange rule by the federation has disappointed the participants and they termed it highly unacceptable.
Reflecting on this condition, the father of a national player showed his anger and stated that this condition is hurting players and their parents.
“This is ridiculous. We are not supposed to pay fee for age verification of other players,” said the father of a participant from Sindh while talking to ‘The New’.
He added that squash has been already under crisis as only a few players are left in the country who play this game, so this type of conditions would further deter players.
“It’s the responsibility of the federation. Burdening players and their parents for the federation’s own incompetence to deal with this longstanding overage saga is senseless,” said the father.
It is worth adding here that PSF adopted a standardised age testing British procedure in early 2021 and conducted bone tests of 47 junior players at the radiology department of the Army Medical College to categorize players according to their real ages.
“The age tests did not cost us much and I can say they were quite cheap. One test at that time cost us not more than one thousand rupees,” said an official of PSF while talking to ‘The News’.
The official added it is strange how the federation can ask for Rs 20 thousand for age verification tests and it seems quite an injustice to players and their parents.
“The federation should not have annulled the procedure it adopted in 2021. It’s sad to know that they are once again using old methods of age verification through birth certificates and B-forms,” said the official.
It is to be noted that British qualified doctors had conducted those tests and this became a standard since then for all junior players wishing to represent Pakistan at national and international level. It is pertinent to mention here that the said PSA closed satellite event is being held for men, masters, and junior categories.
The last date of entries is February 24th and only main rounds will be played with one wild card for each category.
