Islamabad to host world jr squash

ISLAMABAD, May 19: Islamabad will host the World Junior Championship next year in August at a brand new complex that will hopefully be ready for this big event, a top official of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) announced on Monday.

Air Vice Marshal Raashid Kalim, senior vice president of the PSF said after the federation’s executive committee meeting earlier in the day in Rawalpindi, that the championship will feature between 24 to 28 teams.

The World Squash Federation (WSF) approved Pakistan’s bid to stage the championship a few days ago and the PSF now plans to hold the event in the capital where construction of a new complex is due to start soon.

It will have an all glass portable court, which had been bought last year and was first used for the Pakistan Open in Lahore.

Pakistan, under coach Rehmat Khan had won the World Junior Championship in Chennai, India last year for the first time in over two decades and will now be defending their crown at home.

The PSF meeting, chaired by its new president, Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat also approved the criteria for selection and preparation for this year’s World Team Championship in Vienna.

Twelve players will appear in the trials with Mansoor Zaman and Shahid Zaman being given exemption. Out of this lot, six will be selected who will remain under training of Rehmat till the final trials.

The house decided that trials would take place a week before the deadline for submission of names to WSF.

The players making the team will then continue training till their departure for Vienna where the championship is slated to run between October 19 and 25.

The National Team Championship was pencilled in for July 25 to 31, again in Islamabad in which all provincial associations and affiliated members will take part, Raashid said.

He said that a policy governing rules of business in squash was to be devised and the associations had been asked to send in their suggestions within 20 days.

These would then be put before the federation’s general council for approval.

The PSF bosses also decided to enhance the prize money of national tournaments, with future junior competitions offering a minimum purse of Rs 300,000 and the senior championships carrying a prize sum of at least Rs 500,000.

The squash courts in the Balochistan capital of Quetta also came up for discussion.

The meeting decided that because of inadequate infrastructure, the provincial government there would be asked to allot a piece of land for construction of an international squash complex.

It was agreed that to determine the correct ages of junior players, vice president Mansoor Khan would formulate a proposal for further implementation by the PSF.

Meanwhile the players who would appear in the trials for the World Team Championship are Farrukh Zaman, Muhammad Ilyas, Aijaz Azmat, Majid Khan, Khayal Muhammad, Arshad Iqbal, Zubair Ali, Naveed Atlas, Safeer Khan, Khalid Atlas, Farhan Mahboob and Yasir Butt.

The PSF on Monday also released its national and international calendar for the year.

May 12-16 Super Series final ($65,000, London)

May 19-24 PSA Qatar Masters ($120,000, Qatar)

May 25-27 Qatar Circuit-III ($6000, Qatar)

June 4-10 President PSF Cup Open (Rs 300,000, Abbottabad)

June 1-14 National Women Championship (Karachi)

June 25-30 Balochistan National Juniors (boys/girls, Quetta)

July 1-4 National Women Championship (Bhurban)

July 15-20 Sindh National Juniors (boys/girls, Karachi)

July 15-20 Squash Works Open ($10,000, US)

July 22-27 James Baker Championship ($6000, US)

July 25-31 National Team Championship (Islamabad)