Glass court remains under-utilised

KARACHI: The mobile, all weather four-wall glass squash court that Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) purchased from ASB in December 2014 remains under-utilised.

The portable court, purchased for around Rs12 million, which is the second four-wall glass court in the country, is lying in Karachi, having been used only once, for the series against Egypt earlier this year.

“It is in Karachi and we have approached President Mamnoon Hussain to allow it to be installed on the land adjacent to Punjab Squash Complex in Lahore,” said PSF secretary Amir Nawaz, when contacted.

Punjab Squash Association (PSA) wrote a letter in May 2015 to Mamnoon Hussain to allot the association 700 sq feet of space adjacent to Punjab Squash Complex in Lahore to install that court.

“The land is of Pakistan Institute of Public Policy (PIPP) which his headed by Mamnoon Hussain. A decision is likely to be taken at its board of governors meeting,” said Amir, adding that their application was first rejected by PIPP but now PSF president Sohail Aman has approached PIPP once again.

Amir said they expected that the BoG would approve this mobile court to be installed there.

The PSF secretary said it was decided in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the federation held in the last week of April 2015 that the court would be installed in Lahore.

The PSF initially planned to install the court in Peshawar where squash remains a popular sport. But during the AGM, the new president decided to give the portable court to Balochistan.

“The president asked me to take the court and install it in Quetta and organise a high-prized event on the court, probably in August. PSF was to bear all the cost (around Rs1 million) of the installation and transportation of the court,” Balochistan Squash Association’s (BSA) then president Sher Khan Kakar told ‘The News’ after the meeting.

In the same meeting, the deposed president of Sindh Squash Association Tahir Khanzada requested the house to install the court at any shopping mall of Karachi.

The squash fraternity believes that this all-weather, four-wall glass squash court is of a low quality.

The problems with the court were noticed during the series between Pakistan and Egypt as the Egyptian players faced grip problems during their practice session as the court was slippery due to dew since it did not have any cover on it.

The court was fine on the first day of the series, but on the second day it was very slippery, which made Egypt’s Tarek Momen leave the court twice in the beginning of his match against Farhan Mehboob.

Tarek was reluctant to continue as he already had his one foot twisted, but the management persuaded him to complete the match.

A referee told ‘The News’ that PSF had bought a very old court. “The PSF should not have bought it,” he said.

The court kept lying at Karachi Port for about 16 months before installation in Karachi for the Egypt series.