An Open Letter to the President of the
WORLD SQUASH FEDERATION
Jahangir Khan
We have admired you
as a player, as an ambassador and as a leader in our sport. We know you have
served it courageously, selflessly and intelligently. Your time as president
of the World Squash Federation (WSF) is coming to an end and we write to
request you to perform one last great service to your sport – withdraw the
motion that will compel all players to move to a scoring system most of them
do not want.
To force this
motion through, to compel all players to move to PAR to 11, will not unify
our sport. It will divide it.
We already have PAR
(to 9 and 15) officially in the rules (in Appendix 7). We believe that PAR
to 11 should be included immediately but not be compulsory for all. The ‘win
by two principle’ at 8, 10 or 14 also needs to be included, at least as an
alternative to ‘setting’.
We believe that
standard ‘hand-in, hand-out’ scoring to nine should be maintained as the
standard scoring system of the sport. It has a beautiful balance between
shots and tactics, speed and endurance and players can fight right to the
end. This we believe is one of the fundamental ingredients of our game, one
that makes it a great competitive sport. It is also the system that players
generally wish to play.
The men’s
Professional Squash Association (PSA) introduced PAR to 11 for reasons that
applied specifically to the professional game. And the Women’s International
Squash Association did exactly the same thing. It was not argued nor
intended that this be imposed as a means of compulsory ‘unification’.
We are unconvinced
by the various arguments proposed for universal PAR to 11:
-
Hand-in, hand-out
scoring is not a difficult system to understand.
-
The
recommendations of the Working Group have reportedly been corrupted by
‘political interference’ – to the shame of our sport.
-
The justification
claimed for a uniform scoring system is weak.
-
The so-called ‘I
can do that’ effect of players wanting to play the same scoring system as
the top players has not occurred and is irrelevant.
-
Players and
organisations have for some time had the option to use PAR scoring; in
general they have chosen not to take it.
Compelling all
players to use PAR to 11 will not unify the sport. All that will be achieved
is that more competition will happen outside the auspices of the WSF
‘rules’. This will be to the detriment of our sport.
Signed
Ian McKenzie
Editor, The Squash Player magazine
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