Squash players to receive financial help

Aamir, Farhan among beneficiaries of federation’s plan

KARACHI: The Pakistan Squash Federation has decided to heed to the players’ demands and will now facilitate their participation in Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournaments ranging from $10,000 to $300,000.

Senior players, including Aamir Atlas Khan and Farhan Mehboob among others, had seen their ranking slide in recent times after being unable to take part in PSA tournaments. Their suggestion was to get them sponsorships so that increased participation could mean more ranking points.

Recently, senior players and PSF officials had been in discussion with PSF President Tahir Rafique Butt to chalk up a long-term plan with an eye on next year’s Senior World Team Championship as well. The PSF has now decided to arrange for money through sponsors.

“We’ll feed our players important PSA tournaments ranging from $10,000 to $300,000 after a major change in plan on how to take the game forward,” a senior PSF official told The Express Tribune. “The players will be given targets to achieve in these events and a proper chart will be made at the end of the year to determine their progress. They’ll have 275 points to win from S10,000 and so on and so forth.”

The official said that the federation will try to give these players between three to six tournaments before the end of this year, according to their eligibility in PSA events, and will also bear their accommodation expenses.

Meanwhile, the PSF has also planned to keep these players fit and is considering setting up a training camp which will continue till December.

“The PSF wants victories after it sponsors them. In the past players like Jahangir, Jansher Khan and Qamar Zaman used to win regularly and got the backing from sponsors and departments.”

Beneficiaries

Players

Aamir Atlas Khan, Farhan Mehboob, Yasir Butt, Farhan Zaman, Danish Atlas Khan, Sheikh Saqib Yousuf, Waqas Mehboob, Waqar Mehboob, Nasir Iqbal, Hamzah Bokhari, while Ali Bokhari could also be involved in the project as 11th player

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2012.