By Aderonke Ojediran-Lawal
Lagos – The Professional Squash Players Association of Nigeria (PSPAN) on Tuesday appealed to private and corporate organisations to partner with the body to enable it to organise regular competitions.
The President of PSPAN, Seun Peters, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the dearth of competitions was deterring players from continuing with their training.
Peter said that competitions were veritable tools for assessing players’ development.
“In a year, we rarely have competitions; ordinarily, we should have up to 30 tournaments as in other climes.
“We all know that training is strenuous and after such preparations, the players don’t have tournaments to compete in and this discourages them.
“As an organisation we are trying our best to encourage them, hence this appeal.
“We appreciate that there are enthusiasts that have been supporting us in terms of sponsorship and organising competitions but it’s not enough; we need more partnership,’’ Peters said.
He attributed the drop in the organisation of competitions to the country’s poor economic situation and the fact that football remained the only sport patronised by the public and private sectors.
“Economically, everybody is complaining, so, there is little anyone can do, the recession is not for a selected few, everybody is complaining and we are praying that this phase will pass soon.
“An average Nigerian is a football enthusiast, unfortunately government too seem to lean towards that ideology and focus on football and ultimately killing other sports not just squash,’’ he said.
NAN reports that PSPAN was formed in November 2012 with the objective of organising the squash players under one umbrella and conducting regular keep-fit-competitions.
Since inception, the association has been holding monthly competitions which it rotated in clubs in Lagos state.
The last in the series of the PSPAN organised competition was UPDC/O’TRAFFORD Tournament held at Apapa, Lagos on Sept. 17 this year.
(Edited and Controlled by Peter Ejiofor)
