ISLAMABAD, June 25: The Annual General Meeting of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) Tuesday while approving the teams for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games and the World Junior Championship, also annouced a two-member squad for this year’s Asian Games.
The meeting held at the Air Headquarters, Chaklala, named Mansoor Zaman and Shahid Zaman for the Sep 30 to Oct 4 Asiad in the South Korean city of Busan.
The teams for the Commonwealth Games slated for July 26 to Aug 4 in Manchester, England and the World Junior Championship in Chennai, India, running between Aug 13 and 24, were unanimously approved. The teams for both events had been finalised earlier.
The AGM attended by almost all the top officials of the PSF and its affiliated units, made it compulsory for all provincial associations to stage one international tournament and a national junior event for boys and girls each year.
It was also decided by the house that the provincial associations and departments form their own teams for participation in the national team championships, whenever these are held.
The PSF bosses also approved release of national rankings on a quarterly basis for junior and senior age groups. It was decided that players who do not show up at any national or international tournament after agreeing to participate, would be slapped with a penalty of minus five points.
Matters related to the Balochistan Squash Association also came up for discussion. The provincial body had been quite inactive lately but its newly elected secretary Lt Col (Retd) Syed Shahid Hussain assured the house that the sport would spring to life again once they get possession of courts there.
The PSF chief also inaugurated the website of the federation -paksquash.com- which will be updated regularly to keep the followers of the game informed of the latest developments in Pakistan squash.
A calendar of tournaments for the next six months was unanimously finalised with the following events taking place: Sept 10-15: $25000 CNS International (Navy) Oct 5-10: Rs 200,000 PSF National Junior Championship (Balochistan) Oct 20-25: $25000 CAS International (PAF) Dec 13-18: $25000 COAS International (Army) Jan 26-31: $10000 Pakistan Squash Circuit (Punjab).