Shahzaib misses out due to lack of funds

National junior champion not part of scrabble world event squad.

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) confirmed the participation of eight players at the World Youth Championship that takes place in Birmingham next month but national junior champion Shahzaib Khatri was forced to miss out due to a lack of financial assistance.

Javeria Mirza, Javeria Salman, Mariam Arig, Inshal Mohammad, Mohammad Jahanzaib, Arham Abidi, Moizullah Baig and Yash Gandhi will compete against 60 countries in the championship. Each participant will play 24 games in the three-day event. This will be Pakistan’s third participation in an event where they finished fifth last year.

“The only disappointing thing about our participation is that Khatri will not be playing there,” PSA Secretary Javaid Iqbal told The Express Tribune. “Each participant is paying for themselves while PSA can only help with the registration and accommodation at the moment. Losing Khatri is a huge blow but we are expecting our team to finish among top three this time.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2012.