Pakistanis fall in squash ranking

Amir Atlas out of top-40, Mehboob now 96th.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s slump in the individual Professional Squash Association (PSA) ranking continued as the country’s top-ranked player Amir Atlas Khan has fallen to 45th while Farhan Mehboob is now placed at 96th.

According to the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) Secretary Abdul Wahab Marwat, the public and private sectors needed to help these players earn sponsorships for PSA tournaments so that they can improve their ranking.

“The PSF can’t afford to arrange 12 tournaments for every player or even one of them because it’s very expensive,” Marwat told The Express Tribune. “I can only request the sponsors to come up and help them get as many tournaments as possible.”

Meanwhile, the deadline for entries at the Asian Squash Masters event to be held in Lahore has been extended by a week as the Punjab Squash Association (PSA) looks to attract big names in order to make the event a successful one.

The last date to apply was set at August 3 but a week’s extension has now been given as the PSF looks to send a strong signal to the squash community that the country is safe to host high profile tournaments.

“The Punjab association wanted to have big names in the event so they requested for an extension. We’re trying to line up the likes of Jonathan Power, Nick Matthew and Ramy Ashour for the tournaments. Both PSF and the PSA are looking to send a strong signal to the global sports fraternity that Pakistan is safe for international sporting events.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2012.