Noor, Abdullah create risk of ban for Pakistan at BJO

KARACHI: Noor Zaman and Abdullah Nawaz have created a risk of ban for the country by skipping their plate round matches at British Junior Open on Sunday.

It has been learnt that Noor and Abdullah did not play mandatory plate round matches of their under-19 and under-17 categories, respectively, on flimsy grounds.

“They skipped their mandatory plate round matches and this could result in something bad for Pakistan,” said a source associated with Pakistan Squash Federation while talking to ‘The News’ from England.

The source added that both the players lost in the initial rounds of their age categories and they had to play the remaining rounds (plate category).

“They will be responsible for any bad outcome for Pakistan. We had faced a one year ban due to this issue in the past and let’s see what happens this time,” said the source.

Besides Noor and Abdullah, two female players namely Zarlish Safdar and Sunzil Safdar also skipped playing their main round events in the under-17 and under-13 categories, respectively.

They did enter their name and reached England for the event but they did not play their main round matches, which could also create issues for Pakistan.

In 2013, England Squash banned Pakistan for the 2014 edition of the BJO when 11 out of 15 players from Pakistan skipped their plate round matches.

England Squash stated that Pakistani players had been continuously ignoring the mandatory requirement of playing all rounds of the event under the MONRAD system.

It is to be noted that the MONRAD system replaced the previous main event and plate competition guaranteeing players get more matches.

However, many players withdraw from the competition once they have been beaten, throwing the organisation into turmoil.