The satellite squash events are the lowest-ranked category events of Professional Squash Association (PSA) and World Squash Federation (WSF). They offer prize money from $500 to $3000 and a few ranking points. They are designed to help low-ranked players and grow squash at grassroots level.

Pakistan squash circuit has been witnessing steep growth of such low-prize international satellite events for the last few years.

Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) and its units including Balochistan, Punjab, Navy, and Sindh have organised a significant number of such events.

The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 forced the local organisers and promoters to host satellite events just to provide local players with opportunities to earn valuable points during the absence of international competitions.

The PSA also emphasised hosting more and more satellite events during the pandemic. The PSA offered discounts on hosting satellite events.

Hence, 10 satellite events were organised in 2020 in Pakistan out of total 12 international squash events in that year.

The trend continued in 2021 as well when five satellite events were held out of 13 events in that year. This trend continued in 2023 and 2024.

Osama Khan, a former national player and currently an organiser, was the first person to give a push to satellite events when he organised five back-to-back such events in 2020 in Karachi.

His idea was that due to travel restrictions during the covid-19 and the absence of international big- prize events these events would prove the best available option for local players.

He believed that satellite events were a good option for local players and promoters as they provide low-ranked players with competitive competition and ranking points.

There have been three phases. In the first phase, starting from 2020, the satellite events proved quite beneficial to local players.

The second phase, part of 2022 and the whole of 2023, witnessed a bulk of such events which were lacking in vigor as players started losing interest due to few ranking points and low prize money. For example, 36 players did not turn up for the $1000 2nd Torsam Khan PSA Satellite Squash Championship held in Karachi last year.

Similarly, the organisers received 32 and 18 entries for under-15 and women’s events, respectively, which were held simultaneously in the same championship: 11 players skipped the under-15 event and three players made no show in the women’s event. One reason was that the organisers had not planned well for the event as a similar event was scheduled in Lahore in the same week.

Thus, the organisers had to fill the long draws (32 places for each category) with local players and it was quite a difficult task.

Interestingly, the organisers confessed that they should have made small draws of 16 places after such a big number of players skipped the events.

This one example shows how local organisers were mismanaging such events (in the second phase) without thinking pragmatically and ignoring the interest of players.

In the third phase (started from this year) this trend of organising satellite events to help local players was exploited by some unscrupulous elements who started fleecing poor players by charging entry fee.

Now the satellite events have become a lucrative business for local organisers. They completely forgot why these events were important for local players in the initial years.

Though there is no restriction on charging entry fee, this does hurt local players who are poor and cannot afford paying heavy entry fees to play these events.

The Punjab Squash Association charged entry fee in three events and Navy in seven.

PSF and Punjab Squash Association organised four and two satellite events, respectively, in July and September 2021 but did not charge any entry fee.

In 2022, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Squash Association and Punjab Squash Association each organised two satellite events and did not charge any entry fee.

Sindh Squash Association also organised one event but did not charge any fee.

The Navy organised two events and charged $10 as entry fee in one of them.

Mujtaba Raza, a former player, organised four satellite events in Quetta and charged $30 as entry fee in all events.

In 2023, Punjab Squash organised five satellite events and charged $30 as entry fee in three events.

Sindh Squash organised two satellite events in 2023 but did not charge any entry fee. The Navy organised two events and charged $20 and $10 for those events.

The Roshan Khan Jahangir Khan Squash Complex under the patronage of the Navy organised two such events in 2023 and charged a $20 entry fee.

In 2024, the Navy planned five satellite events and charged $20 in two of them as entry fee while they did not announce the entry fee in the remaining three events.

This third phase in the growth of satellite events in Pakistan is damaging for both the players and the game of squash.

The organisers should know that satellite events were an alternative for local players who don’t get to play high-prize events, but greedy organisers have made this option really unattractive for them.

It is high time this trend came to an end. It is of no help to players to pay heavy price for the lowest-ranked satellite events.