Pakistan likely to skip British Junior Open

KARACHI: Pakistan is not likely to feature players in the British Junior Squash Open next year due to Pakistan Squash Federation’s acute financial crisis.

Secretary PSF Amir Nawaz has informed the units through a letter that the participation in the upcoming BJO will be on “self-finance basis”. Those who want to participate in the championship will have to either go on self-finance basis or secure sponsorship from their respective associations.

Secretary PSF also mentioned the criterion for the participation in the BJO and stated that based upon their current national ranking, players of U-11, 13, 15, 17 and U-19 categories (Top-10 Boys and Top-05 Girls) may participate in BJO-25 on self-finance basis.

“Players’ entries must be forwarded to PSF through their respective squash association till 10 October, 24. Direct entries by the players would not be accepted. Moreover, recommending association would be responsible for bringing the players back to Pakistan immediately after the championship.

“Entry fee (if any) would be paid to the event organisers by the players themselves. Delay (if any) would be the responsibility of players. “Respective association has to forward players’ endorsement proforma to PSF along with Surety Bond of Rs5 million for each individual and an Assurance Certificate. “

PSF has been facing a shortage of talented players and does not sponsor average players for such championships. This was the very reason the federation did not send any player in major international events last year.

Pakistan skipped this world championship for the second time as the country also did not take part in the 2019 edition of the event on the grounds that participation would not be “cost effective”.

Pakistan also skipped British Open, Asian Individual Championship, and PSA World Championship last year. Meanwhile, the federation’s decision of not sponsoring players for the BJO has angered the affiliated units as they too are not in a position to sponsor their players.

“This is really strange. If the federation cannot sponsor players for big events, what purpose are they fulfilling then,” said an official of a provincial squash association. He added that there are a number of talented players in Punjab, Karachi, and KPK but they cannot participate in the BJO on their own and the provincial associations too cannot afford sponsoring them.