Administrative blunder costs India chance to compete in World Squash Championship

New Delhi: An administrative blunder by the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) has denied the national men's team a chance to compete in the World Championship in Washington from December 15-21.

It is learnt that SRFI officials were not able to get the necessary clearances in time from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for the biennial event.

"The SRFI was not able to get a meeting with SAI and that is why the approval did not come and SRFI didn't register the team. It is really sad that players have to bear the brunt of this," a source told PTI.

The national federation though claimed that it tried its best to get approval from the SAI.

"The last date for submitting India's entry was July 16 and the SRFI had written to the SAI little over a month earlier, on June 14 for approval. The Federation had in fact submitted its Annual Calendar for Competitions and Training to the SAI as early as January 2019 wherein participation in the World championship was a point mentioned.

"However no ACTC meeting was called for in the subsequent months from February to April when such delay do not normally take place. The meeting actually took place only on July 30 by which time the Championship last date had elapsed," an SRFI statement said.