The misuse of wildcards through allocation to undeserving players in international squash events has become a norm in Pakistan.

It has been observed that most of the time wildcards are given to those players who have already fizzled out while deserving, talented juniors are ignored by Pakistan Squash Federation and local organisers.

This has been happening for a long time. The wildcards are a very important opportunity meant for young talented juniors to provide them with a competitive environment but this is not being utilised here properly.

PSF does not have any policy in this regard and this malpractice is not limited to just international events as the situation is worse at the national circuit.

The biased awarding of wildcards shows that PSF is heavily under the influence of some families.

Also, the procedure to give wildcards is highly flawed because over and over the same players are getting wildcards including those who have passed their prime time and we cannot bet on them anymore.

The data show that Pakistan’s 66 players got wildcards in 47 international events held in the country since 2014 and 90 percent of them failed to capitalise on this opportunity by losing in the first rounds.

In 2014, Asim Khan and Farhan Mehboob got wildcards in two international events and they both lost in the first round.

In 2015, Faraz Muhammad, Sheraz Saleem (an organiser), Israr Ahmed, and Abbas Shoukat got wildcards in four international events and all of them lost in the first round except Israr who lost in the second round.

In 2016, Waqar Mehboob, Mahad Javed, Ammad Fareed, Bilal Zakir, and Asim Khan got wildcards in five international events and four of them lost in the first round. Only Ammad managed to reach the semifinals.

In 2017, Ahsan Ayaz and Israr Ahmed got wildcards in two international events and both of them lost in the first round.

In 2018, Abbas Zeb, Kashif Asif, Naveed Rehman, Amir Atlas Khan, Haris Qasim, M Farhan, M Uzair, Hassan Raza, Saeed Abdul, Ahsan Ayaz, Noman Khan, Faraz Muhammad, and Owais Rasheed got wildcards in nine international events.

Kashif Asif lost in the second round while all other players lost in the first round. Former world number 14 Amir Atlas was given a wildcard in the $30,000 CAS International 2018 and he lost in the first round.

In 2019, Waqas Mehboob, Israr Ahmed, Haris Iqbal, Haris Qasim, Farhan Hashmi, Salman Saleem, Noor Zaman, Zeeshan Zeb, Faizan Khan, and Rafi Khan got wildcards for six international events.

Faizan Khan lost in the second round while Noor Zaman got two wildcards and lost in the second round in one event and the rest of the players lost in the first round.

In 2020, Faraz Muhammad, Saeed Abdul, Waqar Khan, Zeeshan Zeb, Hamza Sharif, and Hamza Khan got wildcards in three international events. Five players lost in the first round. Zeeshan lost in the second.

In 2021, Hamza Khan, Faraz Muhammad, Khushal Riaz, Noor Zaman, Hamza Sharif, Faraz Muhammad, Saeed Abdul, Ahmad Amin, Huzaifa Shahid, Junaid Khan, Tayyab Rauf, Usman Nadeem, and Azlan Khawar got wildcards in five international events and all of them lost in the first round.

In 2022, Ashab Irfan, Noor Zaman, Farhan Mehboob, M Ammad, Khushal Riaz, and Moeen-ud-Din, and Talha Saeed got wildcards in four international events.

Ashab Irfan, Farhan Mehboob and M Ammad lost in the second round while others lost in the first round.

It is pertinent to mention here that Faraz Muhammad and Noor Zaman each got four wildcards while Farhan Mehboob, Israr Ahmed, Saeed Abdul each got three wildcards during the said period.

Those who got two wildcards were Asim Khan, Abbas, Haris Qasim, Zeeshan Zeb, Hamza Khan, Hamza Sharif, and Ahsan Ayaz in this period.

In 2023, Usman Nadeem and Farhan Mehboob got wildcards for the $12,000 CAS International and they lost in the first and second rounds, respectively.

This year Abdul Basit Khan and Nasir Iqbal were given wildcards in the $20,000 CNS International held in Karachi. Though Nasir reached the finals, Abdul Basit lost in the first round.

Interestingly, Secretary PSF Zafaryab Iqbal claimed that they do have a policy regarding allocation of wildcards according to which at local level, every provincial association gets one wildcard while for international events the federation conducts trials.