PSF bans players for throwing away matches

The Pakistan Squash Federation has banned three of its racqueters, including Aamir Atlas Khan, for allegedly throwing away their matches in the World team championship, held in Germany in August.

Aamir has been banned for two years, while Yasir Butt and Waqar Mahboob were banned for one year and six months, respectively.

“We are still probing to find out why these players threw their matches, because the video evidence and the manager’s report clearly show they didn’t attempt to win their matches at all,” a PSF official said.

The Federation is also taking steps to prevent the trio from participating in the professional circuit. But furious Aamir claimed that the PSF cannot stop him from taking part in the tournaments held by the Professional Squash Association (PSA).

The player was anguished with the ban and said that he would seek legal remedy, if necessary.

PSF official said it was a very serious matter and revealed that the federation had written to both the PSA and the World Squash Federation, informing them about the situation.

“We are still investigating the matter because we want to know the full story behind this sad episode which was bad for the image of Pakistan squash,” the official said.

The PSF on Tuesday screened the video recordings of the matches featuring the three players to its executive committee members along with former greats, Jansher Khan and Qamar Zaman.

According to reports in one of the videos featuring a crucial match between Aamir and Krisitian Frost Olsen of Denmark, the Pakistani player is seen winking to his fellow players after losing the match as if the result was pre-planned.

Relation between the present PSF set-up and the players has been pretty stormy in recent times with the federation having already banned Aamir once before for giving critical statements.

Since the retirement of former world champions, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan, Pakistan has lost its top position and ascendancy in world squash, although last year Aamir led the team to the Asian Games gold medal.