KARACHI, May 1: Pakistan does not have a single official in the two panels that include world and international referees, according to the World Squash Federation (WSF) handbook.
The WSF handbook issued by London-based federation in April gives complete list of referees who can supervise international tournaments worldwide. There are two elite panel of the WSF- certified referees.
The world referees panels have ten members while the international referees committee has 23 members.
It is surprising that non-of the 33 referees is from Pakistan, a country that has won more international squash titles than any other nation in the last 50 years.
Apart from Pakistan almost all the other squash playing countries are represented on the panel.
According to the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) the reason why Pakistan does not have the single referee in the world or international panel is because the PSF never took the task of holding coaching clinics for its referees in the past.
The PSF is now planning to organize such clinics for its referees but it will take some time before any of its referees acquire the required qualifications to be a part of the elite panel.
Following are the names of the referees on the two panels.
World Referees: Ian Allanach (Scotland), Robert Allen (Ireland), Chris Clark (Hong Kong), Chas Evens (New Zealand), Fahim Gul (Singapore), Peter Highsted (New Zealand), Bruce Kettle (England), Tony Parker (ENG), Graham Waters (Canada) and Nasser Zarhan (Egypt).
International Referees: Harvey Bowlt (South Africa), Ian Cherington (Neitherlands), Dean Clayton (Eng), Michael Collins (South Africa), Wandy Danzey (England), Barry Fagua (Canada), Mohammed Fayyaz (Hong Kong), Roy Gingel (Wales), Mathias Kallio (Sweden), Jamshed Gul Khan (Malaysia), Peter Kramer (England), Peter Lawrence (Wales), John Masarella (England), Nelson Neto (Brazil), Gerry Poulton (Canada), Michel Riley (USA), Raul Schweinitz (Germany), Munir Shah (Singapore), Cris Sinclair (Australia), Yogendra Singh (India), Bill West (France), William Winter (England) and Jill Wood also from England. —PPI
