ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has taken the initiative to award central contracts to players on the basis of their performance, PSF secretary Group Captain Aamir Nawaz said on Monday.

“The contracts are purely performance-based and are aimed at providing financial support to players,” Aamir said.

He emphasised that initially six players — Nasir Iqbal, Farhan Zaman, Danish Atlas, Tayyab Aslam, Asim Khan and Israr Ahmed — had been given six-month contract.

“These players will be under direct watch of the federation. They will also attend PSA events in different countries, which will help improve their world rankings,” the secretary noted.

Sharing the details of the contracts, he said Nasir and Zaman had been awarded ‘A’ category and they would be given Rs35,000 per month; Tayyab and Danish had been awarded ‘B’ category and they would receive Rs25,000 monthly. While Asim and Israr, placed in ‘C’ category, would pocket Rs15,000.

The PSF has recently set up the Pakistan National Squash Academy (PNSA) at the Mushaf Squash Complex in Islamabad.

Nawaz hoped that the initiative of awarding the contracts would help improve fitness level of the contracted players, who, he said, would now be training regularly at the PNSA instead of featuring in short camps.

To a question as to why Amir Atlas Khan and Farhan Mahboob were not included in the central contracts, Aamir said both the players had been continuously ignoring PSF calls to attend the training camps. “They preferred to stay away from the camps, hence they were not considered,” the official stated.

Published in Dawn ,July 14th, 2015

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