Women’s world team meet may be postponed

KUALA LUMPUR: There is no point in hosting the women’s world team squash championships this year if it has to be done on a smaller scale.

So, the world event, scheduled from Dec 15-20 at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil, may be postponed.

Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) director Major (Rtd) S. Maniam said there were just too many uncertainties ahead of the world meet as the world continues to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We don’t want to host the meet in a small scale as it will not serve the purpose,” said Maniam.

“Some of the top teams are from the United States, South America and Europe but these three continents are affected by the virus. Most countries are still restricted from travelling.

“Even if the players from other countries arrive here for the world meet they will need to be quarantined before they can play in the meet,” said Maniam.

“There are seating arrangements that we need to look into at the squash centre to maintain social distancing, Then, there are approvals that we need to obtain.

There are just too many procedures that we have to look into before deciding whether to host this world meet at the end of this year.

In the last meet in Dalian, China two years ago, 16 teams featured and Egypt emerged as the champions for the fourth time by beating England 2-1 in the final.

Malaysia led by former eighttime world champion Nicol David, finished sixth.