Squash World Meet: Malaysia Not Being Discriminatory

NILAI (Malaysia), Nov 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's insistence in not allowing Israeli players to compete in the Men's World Team Squash Championship, scheduled to be held in Bukit Jalil from Dec 7 to 12, is not an act of discrimination against that country, said Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu He said the whole world was aware that Malaysia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, including in sports. "When the World Squash Federation (WSF) gave Malaysia the green light to host the international meet, they should have taken note of the fact that we do not allow Israeli athletes to compete here,” he told reporters at the Nilai National Sports Council (NSC) Complex here, Tuesday. The WSF and Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) said in a statement earlier today that the championship had been cancelled due to the possibility that several countries, one of them reportedly being Israel, could not compete due to the non-confirmation of their visa application and travel authorisation by the Malaysian authorities. The WSF said the decision to cancel the tournament was also influenced by the new COVID-19 Omicron variant. -- BERNAMA