Leading squash stars mock idea that Egypt is unsafe after championship postponed

Egypt’s top squash stars have reacted with disappointment to news that the 2015 WSF Men’s World Team Squash Championship, which was due to take place in Cairo this week, has been postponed indefinitely.

After several leading teams withdrew citing security concerns, Egypt’s Squash Federation announced its decision to postpone.

“We request this postponement with a heavy heart, as Cairo is a safe city,” the Egyptian Federation president Assem Khalifa said.

Egypt had stepped in to act as hosts for the event in October after Kuwait’s suspension by the International Olympic Committee meant that the Gulf state would not be able to stage the biennial championship. 

The country’s leading players took to social media to lambast the teams that withdrew, declaring that Egypt is as safe as any other part of the world.

Former number one and one of Egypt’s most talented players, Ramy Ashour, tweeted after the news came out, “Nowadays If you think some places are safer than others, then I strongly suggest you find another planet to live on...”

World number 10, Tarek Momen, who was expected to join Ashour, Mohamed al-Shorbagy and Omar Mosaad in representing Egypt at the championship, wrote on his Facebook page similarly expressing disbelief at the withdrawal of several teams over security concerns.

“About the situation with the World Teams in Cairo, it saddens me a lot to see people trying to pin the reason for the withdrawal of some big teams on 'Safety' ... With all due respect, Cairo is not less safe than Paris, London, Toronto, California, or any other place on this planet,” he wrote.

Saying that it is a lot of travelling and it’s been a tough season might have been an understandable reason he added, before going to say, “But saying Cairo isn't safe, I'm sorry, I don't care who made the security assessment, they're just plain wrong and should probably look into their local state of security first, then assess others.”

Mosaad echoed his teammates thoughts, adding, “Egypt, like any other nation may sometimes face turbulence. And with the recent events around the globe in Eastern and Western states alike, there exists no reasonable argument to boycott such a fascinating country with one of the longest histories. ‪#‎egypt is ‪#‎safe, ‪#‎as safe as any other place on ‪#‎earth.”

The event was due to start on December 12 and run for a week, but problems began at the beginning of the month when reigning champion England, along with six other countries, announced they would not be participating due to security concerns.

The Egyptian Squash Federation issued a statement on December 1 expressing its concern at “reports in the British media of the intention of the England team to withdraw from the competition and the British Squash Federation’s communication with six other teams to agree on a similar move.”

This comes in the wake of a “state of tension in the West following terrorist incidents.”

The Women’s World Squash Championship that was meant to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from December 11 to 18, was cancelled due to security risks. The federation’s statement referred to this, suggesting that the International Squash Federation cancelled a competition in Malaysia but not Egypt “because of their trust in the Egyptian state.”

England Squash chief Keir Worth told British media on that day that it was on the basis of a comprehensive report from independent security advisers that the defending champion decided to lead a group of teams to pull out of the event.

“We have been through significant consultation with the players and support staff in recent weeks and we are extremely disappointed to be withdrawing, but the safety of our players and support staff remains our only priority and, at this time, we have real concerns,” Worth said.

“We have concluded that there is an inherent risk that has not been mitigated to an acceptable level.”

When England — joined by France, Germany, the US, Canada and Finland — decided not to participate days before the start of the event, this did not necessarily spell out the postponement of the championship for Egypt’s federation. Efforts were still being made to communicate with the embassies of these seven countries to convince them that Egypt was safe.

The World Squash Federation was also highly critical of the withdrawing countries. Its chief executive said in a statement, “This is both disappointing and a little difficult to understand, as there has been no security threat there, unlike for the people of other nations tragically targeted by extremists. Cairo is a city where it is business as usual, though to add reassurance for nations, a full range of protection measures are in place managed by the Egyptian government as reported to participating nations.”

Despite repeated assertions that all state institutions were coming together to ensure everything went ahead as planned, the postponement was made on Friday December 4, the same day there was a bombing in a Cairo nightclub that left 17 dead.

When Mexico, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand and Colombia also announced their withdrawal, the Egyptian federation chose to postpone. It said postponement was better than holding an event with fewer participating teams, which would not correspond to the efforts put into organizing it, nor to Egypt’s illustrious history in the game.

World Squash Federation President N. Ramachandran responded to the decision saying, “It is distressing that this event in the wonderful city of Cairo is being postponed.”

“We will liaise with all member nations after we have taken stock of the position. For now we accept the decision of our esteemed Egyptian partners and express our disappointment to them and the many nations that were in expectation of what would have been a superb championship.”