PSF to endorse players in top-10 national ranking only

KARACHI: Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has limited international participation to only top ten players of the country because countries avoid issuing visas to Pakistani players.

PSF secretary Amir Nawaz recently circulated an email to provincial squash associations, inviting entries for Pioneer Junior to be held in Germany from July 8–11. 

The mail said that entries were to be forwarded to PSF before May 15.

“PSF would endorse entries of only those players who are in top 10 national ranking of respective age category and are recommended by the respective provincial association,” stated PSF secretary in the mail.

This decision of the PSF will affect hundreds of other players who are out of the top-10 national junior rankings due to flawed ranking system of the PSF and unequal distribution of national junior events to provincial squash associations.

“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa association holds the largest number of junior events, so their players easily get into top rankings. Punjab’s players also get the same treatment. But players from Sindh and Balochistan are deprived of this favour from PSF,” said a local coach.

He added that this rule would also deprive those junior players who participated in international events on self-finance basis. “PSF allows even unknown players to play British Junior on self-finance basis, so this limitation is beyond understanding,” added the coach.

Moreover, he added, PSF recently allowed many low-ranked players from junior circuit to play major international events, which shows they had different policies for players. “Decisions of this kind will discourage players and the game of squash will suffer,” said the coach.  The coach demanded that PSF should first ensure equal distribution of junior events.

PSF secretary Amir told ‘The News’ this decision had been taken by the Executive Committee and was for a short period. “We are facing visa issues and receiving complaints from different countries so we took this decision,” added Amir.

He said they would also consider distribution of junior events to sort out the issues in national rankings.