ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) has been providing equal and best opportunities to all players and it is upto the players to work hard and win the titles.

This was stated by PSF secretary Tahir Sultan, who was talking to Dawn in response to allegation levelled by country’s top player Farhan Mehboob who had blamed a lobby in PSF for “deliberately damaging his career.”

“There is no discrimination with Farhan or any other player (s), we are providing equal opportunities to all players,” the secretary said.

Asked about the discontinuation of honorarium of Rs35,000 per month for the top player, who is world number 63, the secretary said that according to PSF, Farhan is not the top player and Israr Ahmed is currently top ranked.

However, it is interesting to note that Israr is ranked 134 in the world.

“Our ranking is mostly based on participation and performance of national tournaments, so currently, Israr is number one based on his performance in national tournaments,” said Tahir and added that federation never gave any discriminatory treatment to Farhan.

Farhan had also expressed his concerns over millions of rupees being spent on the squash academy which according to him was yielding no results.

In response to that, PSF secretary claimed that the academy has been playing important role in the promotion of squash in the country. He said that Farhan’s performance in the year 2017, barring the President Cup win in January 2017) had remained quite dismal.

“Instead of improving his game, he has been levelling baseless allegations,” the PSF secretary said and added that in the high-profile Pakistan Open, Farhan could not not even make the quarter finals.

“We are not against anyone, our policies are open and the current administration under the leadership of Chief of Air Staff and SVP [Air Marshal Shahid Akhtar Alvi] has been taking all possible step for promotion of squash and the players,” he said.

“Legendary players like Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan are also saying that they never enjoyed such fine facilities which are being provided to young player of the country by the federation,” concluded Tahir.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2018