Organiser awards wildcard to himself

KARACHI: The game of squash touched a new low in Pakistan when one of the organisers of the FMC International event awarded himself a wildcard.
Punjab Squash Association (PSA) secretary Sheraz Saleem has been given wildcard which is meant for motivation of emerging players.
The $15,000 event will be held under the auspices of PSA in Lahore from April 22-27.
Sheraz is also staff member of FMC group that is the official sponsor of the event.
He will face top seed Nasir Iqbal in round one.
Sheraz, born on November 16, 1975, is a registered PSA player and is ranked 408th. His highest ranking was 366 in February 2014. This is his first PSA event.
“This is very strange and shameful. This shows how the game has been destroyed in Pakistan,” said an official of a provincial squash body, adding that this would set a wrong precedent as organisers and sponsors would deny this right of emerging players to benefit whomever they liked.
“The heavier the prize money,” he added, “the bigger the chances of misusing this special facility. “It will be no wonder if we find organisers or sponsors playing PSA-25 events that ensure around $1000 to players losing in the first round,” added the official.
Former player and local coach Mehbub Khan termed this act wastage of valuable wildcard. “This is simply wastage of an important wildcard. They could have given it to any talented player from Punjab. This is very sad and never happened in the history of squash in Pakistan,” said Mehbub.
Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) did not take any action against this as they were said to be under the influence of Punjab body. Sheraz and PSA vice president Tariq F Rana did not receive phone calls of this scribe.
PSF secretary Amir Nawaz said the organisers and the sponsors had right to give wildcard to anybody. “This is simply the prerogative of sponsors and organisers and they can utilize this facility in whatever way they want to,” he said. He admitted that this cannot be stopped because of the scarcity of sponsorship in Pakistan.
The qualifying rounds will be played on 22 and 23 in which 16 players, including four locals will take part.
The main draw matches will be held from 24 to 27 in which 16 players including eight seeds, four qualifiers, and one wildcard will participate.