Dad told player…’hit him with your racket’

A squash referee in Karachi had to call off a match after the father of one of the players told his son to hit his opponent with a racket.

During a match between Shahab Khan of Punjab and Mavia Hussain of PAF at the Roshan Khan Junior Squash Open, Hussain’s father directed him in local language Pashto to hit his opponent with the racket. It happened during the third game when Shahab was leading the match 11-7, 11-8, 8-4.

Since the referee of the match knew the language, he warned Mavia not to follow the directions of his father, who was acting as his coach sitting close to the wall of the court. But Mavia did not listen to the referee and hit Shahab with the racket.

The referee then gave the under-13 match in favour of Shahab. “This is a very strange and unfortunate trend we have here in Pakistan. Players’ coaches give them directions during the match, usually in their native languages,” said a coach present at the venue. “Sadly, nothing is being done to stop this practice and one can see this happening at every squash event in the country.”

According to the rules, no coach can advise players during the match, and if anyone is found doing so he is expelled. But in Pakistan fights between coaches are arguments with refs are commonplace.

Have you ever seen an incident like this? Let us know if you have.