Four satellite squash events in Oct, Nov

KARACHI: Three provincial squash associations are going to organise international satellite events from October 21 to November 23.

The first of the events is to be held in Quetta from October 21-24 and the second event has been planned in Lahore from November 10-13. The third is also to be held in Lahore from November 14-17 and the fourth in Peshawar from November 20-23.

Each event carries a prize purse of $1000. It is to be noted that Professional Squash Association (PSA) asked international players to push their national federations for hosting Challenger and Satellite events in the current challenging time.

“During these challenging times, [we] encourage all players to speak to local clubs/promoters about putting on satellite/challenger events in their country,” stated PSA. “Tournaments can have restricted entries and there is flexibility with draw sizes and registration deadlines,” it added.

Former national player Usama Khan has urged the authorities to take advantage of PSA’s offer. “It would be a strategy for Pakistan to host satellite squash events instead of high profile challengers considering the covid-19 situation,” said Usama while talking to ‘The News’.

“The pandemic has altered many norms and conditions so in order to benefit our squash players we should focus on organising satellite events.

“This should be our strategy at least till the end of this year because of traveling restrictions,” said Usama, who is also an event organiser.

“Due to fewer constraints satellite events will help our players get ranking points and stay in practice,” he added.

It is to be noted that Usama hosted five back to back satellite events for local players in Karachi this March, which helped former national champion Nasir Iqbal to get enough points to jump to 260th position.

Nasir won all those five events and resumed his international career after completing the four-year ban imposed by world anti-doping agency (WADA).

“This example clearly shows that satellite events can greatly help our local players in the current situation as they can play competitive squash and also earn ranking points,” said Usama.