PSA advice cuts foreign players’ number in Islamabad event

KARACHI: The Professional Squash Association (PSA) has asked its players to enter their names in a PSA-25 event scheduled next month in Islamabad at their own risk.

“Please note that the PSA have not received a copy of the Public Liability Certificate for this venue. Players entering this tournament do so at their own risk,” stated PSA.

When asked about this, Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) secretary Amir Nawaz said PSA had demanded a letter of credit before registering four PSA-25 events in 2016-17 for Pakistan.

“We told them that PSF cannot provide that but a surety that in case of any mishap the PSF would compensate the participating players for their losses,” stated Amir.

Hence, he added, the PSA registered three PSA-25 events for Pakistan. “We conducted those events successfully. But it seems they have made this clause part of their future events,” said Amir.

Ten foreign players have entered names in the first PSA-25 event of 2017, to be played in Islamabad from January 1-6.

According to the entry list, Leo Au and Tsz Fung Yip from Hong Kong are top seed and second seed, respectively.

Mohamed Reda and Karim Ali Fathi from Egypt are third and fourth seeds, respectively.

Pakistan’s Farhan Zaman is fifth seed, Farhan Mehboob seventh, and Tayyab Aslam eighth.

Youssef Soliman of Egypt is sixth seed.

Karim El Hammamy and Shehab Essam from Egypt and Elvinn Keo from Malaysia are unseeded.

Ashan Ayaz has got a wildcard.

The players of the qualifying draw are: Asim Khan, Addeen Idrakie from Malaysia; Israr Ahmed, Waqar Mehboob; Faraz Muhammad; Zahir Shah; Bilal Zakir; Muhammad Farhan; Ahmad Al-Mudhaf from Kuwait; Abbas Shoukat; Kashif Asif; and Zeeshan Khan.

Top Egyptian players Zahed Mohammad, Mohammad Aboulghair and Omar Abdel Meguid have pulled out of the event apparently because of the new PSA clause.