Pakistan Updates By our correspondent August 30, 2020 KARACHI: Former national player Usama Khan believes that it will be good
strategy for Pakistan to host satelliite squash events instead of high
profile challengers considering the covid-19 situation.
He added that the good news is that the Professional Squash Association
has announced that tournaments on the World Squash Federation & PSA
Satellite Tour will be sanctioned from Thursday August 27 onwards.
"The pandemic has altered many norms and conditions so in order to
benefit our squash players we should focus on organizing satellite
events.
"This should be our strategy at least till the end of this year because of traveling restrictions," said Usama.
Chief Executive of Racket Sports added that due to less constraints
satellite events will help our players get ranking points and stay in
practice.
"Our players will face difficulties regarding participation in international events that are now too few due to the pandemic.
"Similarly, foreign players are also not coming to Pakistan due to the
same reason. Hence, local players will get ample chances to play squash
under international status through satellite events," reasoned Usama.
Usama said that Pakistan could host only one international event so far
this year and the next event is due in November after initial
postponements.
"This has reduced chances to our local players of getting valuable
ranking points and participation in competitive international circuit.
"So we should create as many opportunities as we can for our local
players by organizing a number satellite events," said Usama.
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
from 450 plus.
Nasir won all those five events and resumed his international career
after completing 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.
"I have plans to one again host three satellite events in the coming
months in Karachi. Our squash authorities should also adopt this
strategy," added Usama.
