N.Z. squash Open may be boycotted

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 1

N.Z. squash Open may be boycotted

Squash in New Zealand will be set back three, or four years by the decision to exclude the South African, Roland Watson, from the New Zealand Open, according to the world-ranked professional. Bruce Brownlee, of Rotorua.

A wholesale boycott is now expected from the imposing list of the world’s leading players who have entered the tournament, to be held at Henderson from October 11 to 15.

Watson was among those sent an entry form, but the New Zealand Squash Rackets Association decided at the weekend that, in accordance with the Gleneagles. Agreement, it could not allow him to play. After that .decision, Bruce Brownlee got in touch with the International Squash Players’ Association to which all the world’s touring professionals belong. He said in Christchurch yesterday that he had received confirmation of the I.S.P.A. boycott-in a message from London on Monday evening. The decision of the squash players’ body, which is headed by Jonah Barrington; six times British Open champion, is not binding on its members, but it is unlikely that any will compete. An emergency meeting

of the New Zealand tournament committee will be held within the next .72 hours to see if it is worth while holding the tournament.

Brownlee, ranked fourth on the I.S.P.A. computer seedings, said that the other professionals intending to play had included the Australians, Geoff Hunt (the world champion) and Dean Williams; and the Pakistanis, Mohibullah Khan, Gogi Alauddin, and Hiddy Jahan.

Now Brownlee feels that the future of. the New Zealand Open ' — which was bringing the country into a significant place on the international circuit — is in jeopardy. “It is going to be very hard for :me to influence plavers to come back again in the future,” he 'said. '

The president of the Squash Rackets Association, Mr M. McCarthy, said in Dunedin last evening that the boycott would not change the association’s stance on Watson. “We realised when we made the decision not to admit South African players that this was probably going to happen,’’ he said.

He also thinks that the sponsor, Sun Alliance, which has signed a threeyear contract, will be unhappy about its involvement in a tournament which will be “basically back to a New Zealand amateur title.” Brownlee called the exclusion of Watson “a rushed decision” and said he was shocked and disappointed. He said he had been told by a Squash Rackets Association official that Watson would not have been excluded if the Springbok tour decision had yet to be announced. According to Brownlee, Watson, who is ranked about No. 9 in the world, was not representing South Africa and was not a member of an official team.

“The New Zealand Open committee will obviously have to review the ■ situation when entries close on Saturday, to determine what to do about the tournament.”