According to this press release, John White has just resigned from the Pro Squash Tour. Disappointing.
I gather John wanted to participate in the upcoming US Open, but the tournament’s organizers — the Professional Squash Association — would not let him play in a PSA event unless he renounced his affiliation with the PST.
What is going on here? There’s some sort of dispute between the PSA and the PST. It’s discussed a bit here on SquashSite.
Whatever the back story, it’s apparent that the PSA is limiting Americans’ access to top-quality squash. They are forcing John White, and presumably other pros, to play either PSA or PST, but not both. By definition, the result is fewer high-quality squash matches on US soil.
Meanwhile, the PSA and its affiliated organization¹, the World Squash Federation — squash’s official worldwide governing body — are trying to elicit support around the world to get squash into the 2020 Olympics.
Question: Why should Americans support squash’s Olympics bid if squash’s official governing bodies are suppressing top-level squash from being playing in America?
I’m sure the people at the PSA are reasonable and they are doing what they think is best to promote squash. Obviously, I don’t know the whole story here. Still, if anyone from the PSA happens to read this, here’s a plea from my little corner of the world: please err on the side of encouraging MORE SQUASH.
I’ll close with this thought: As a lifelong American squash player, what would you guess it the #1 question I’m asked about squash? It’s this: “What’s squash? Is that like racquetball?” Squash’s biggest challenge over here in the States is relatively few people even know what squash is. Any increase in awareness helps.
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Correction: The World Squash Federation is NOT the “parent organization” of the PSA. The WSF, the PSA, and the WSA are idependent and autonomous orgnizations.
Thanks for your comment Terence. I updated the text to say “affiliated organization”, to match how the PSA and WSF describe the relationship on their respective Websites.