The Sri Lankan Squash Federation has unilaterally decided not to send a team to Chennai for the Asian junior individual squash championship 2018 citing security concerns in the city.
Despite appeals by the parents of the children and giving indemnification of responsibilities the SLSF has stood negatively citing that the Indian Squash Federation were not providing the security and a letter by DGM sports not sanctioning the tour due to security concerns as the primary reasons for not touring Chennai. The parents are quoting the recent successful tour by the newly formed Sri Lanka Windsurfing Association that went to Chennai with Sport Ministry approval and had no issue and returned successfully. Sri Lanka has participated in all squash tournaments at Iran, Jordan and Malaysia and this will be the first no show in its history in the Asian junior individual squash championship 2018. It is learnt that the secretary of the Squash Federation is opposed to sending the kids to Chennai.
Sports Minister Faiszer Mustapha has intervened on behalf of the parents and directed the SLF to send the team if the parents are willing to take the responsibility.
The parents are of the view that SLSF has strained relations with India and are in a non-communicating mode. On the Sports Minister’s inquiry the Sri Lankan High Commission in India has cleared the team to visit citing there is no intelligence report of any planned disruptions and has promised assistance.
The deadline for the entry is 24 August which is today.
The SLSF has time till midnight tonight to enter the entries. But they have so far not had any trials or preparation notice giving indication that this is a planned moved not to send the team to India.
The selection of players for the Asian Games was also marred by controversy with initially only two players being nominated and another two being nominated in the eleventh hour.
0 comments:
Post a Comment