Four PSA events in Islamabad in Oct-Dec

Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) is to organise four events with international participation carrying accumulated prize money of $100,000 from October to December this year.

“Professional Squash Association (PSA) has awarded us four $25,000 events only for Islamabad. We will organise them in the last quarter of the year,” said PSF secretary Amir Nawaz while talking to ‘The News’.

He added that they had asked for 10 events. “We wanted a few $5000 events to help our junior players but PSA instead gave us four high-prize events,” said Amir.

However, he added, two satellite events only for Pakistani nationals would also be awarded. “One of them is being organised in Karachi from April 9-14 at PAF Museum. The event carries the prize money of $15,000,” added Amir.

According to the entries, Nasir Iqbal is top seed in this event, while Mahad Javed has got wildcard entry.

A pre-qualifying round will be held on April 7 for the selection of four local players.

Meanwhile, talking about a bilateral series with top five Egyptian players, he said their efforts were directed towards bringing in a $50,000 event to Karachi.

“Our main aim behind this series is to convince PSA that Karachi is safe for international top-ranked players, so they allot us one high-prize event for this biggest city of the country,” said Amir.

The secretary said the runners-up in this series would also get prize money. “Earlier, there was no prize money for the runners-up because we wanted to create a will to win in them but later we decided to give them some,” added Amir.

He said total financial package of the series was $40,000, including prize money and travel expenses of the Egyptian players. “We will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a day or two in this regard,” added Amir.

(Source: The News)