Satellite events profitable business for local organisers

KARACHI: Organising satellite squash events has become a profitable business for local organisers as they charge heavy entry fee from poor players.

It has been learnt that some greedy organisers have found it an easy way of making money while these lowest-ranked events don’t give any benefit to players. According to details, Punjab Squash Association charged entry fee in three events, Pakistan Navy in seven events, and Mujtaba Raza, a local organier, charged entry fee in four events. Pakistan Squash Federation and Punjab Squash Association organised four and two satellite events, respectively, in July and September 2021 but did not charge any entry fee.

In 2022, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Squash Association and Punjab Squash Association organised two Satellite events and did not charge any entry fee. Sindh Squash Association also organised one event but did not charge any fee. Pakistan Navy organised two events and charged $10 as entry fee in one of them.

Mujtaba Raza, a former player, organised four satellite events in Quetta and charged $30 as entry fee in each of the events. In 2023, Punjab Squash organised five Satellite events and charged $30 as entry fee in three events.

Sindh Squash organised two satellite events in 2023 but did not charge any entry fee. Pakistan Navy organized two events and charged $20 and $10 for those events. The Roshan Khan Jahangir Khan Squash Complex under the patronage of Pakistan Navy organised two such events in 2023 and charged $20 entry fee in each of them.

Now in 2024, Pakistan Navy has planned five Satellite events and is charging $20 in two of them as entry fee while they haven’t yet announced the entry fee in the remaining three events. “This trend of holding satellite events took pace in 2020 during the pandemic. I was the first to organise five such events that year without charging any entry fee,” said Usama Khan, a former national player, while talking to ‘The News’.