adminMehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
LOCAL squash referee Lucky Mlilo has described as a magnificent experience for him to officiate at a Professional Squash Association tournament in El Gouna, Egypt, a competition which ran from 18 to 27 April.
Mlilo was one of the six referees who took charge of the matches with the panel made of experienced match officials from countries such as England, South Africa, Czech Republic and Egypt.
“It was a wonderful experience being part of a six-man referee team which had very experienced top world referees like John Mossarella of England, Tomas Forter of Czech Republic and Nasser Zahran of Egypt. The other two referees were Alex Hewitson of South Africa and Ashraf Hussein of Egypt. John, Tomas and Nasser are also World Squash Refereeing Assessors,’’ Mlilo said.
What made Mlilo glad was the fact that he handled matches which featured some of the best professional squash players in the world.
“It was a great experience refereeing for top players like Karim Gawad(Egypt),Lucas Serme(France), Simon Rosner(Germany), Declan James(England), Joelle King(New Zealand), Annie Au(Hong Kong), Nouran Gohar(Egypt),Alison Waters(England), Rachel Grinham(Australia), Victoria Lust(Australia) and Salma Hany(Egypt),’’ he said.
Mlilo indicated that he gained a lot of knowledge from the El Gouna tournament since there was usage of a computer system by referee as opposed to the use of a three-referee way of doing things where decision making cards are used.
“I learnt a lot from this tournament. The use of a console connected to computers in the TV crew room as opposed to the use of a three referee system with decision cards. The console is used by a single referee and the second referee is located in the TV crew room where he reviews video decisions and advises the court referee if he is upholding or overruling a decision. This is high technology refereeing that we have not yet embraced in Africa as federations,’’ Mlilo said.
Getting to evaluate their own matches as referees was something which also excited the 52-year old Mlilo, a level three qualified match official.
“Another great experience was the evaluation of some matches on video the following morning as a referees team and analyse how the decisions made the previous day were arrived at. It was also a good experience to get assessments in El Gouna”.
Mlilo is now looking forward to playing and officiating at the World Masters to be held in the United States of America from 29 July to 4 August. In Egypt he also got to handle the El Gouna Masters which ran concurrently with the PSA tournament.
“I am looking forward to playing and refereeing at the next World Masters this year in US. On the day of the finals, I had the honour of refereeing the finals of the El Gouna Masters which was running concurrently with the major championships. There were three age categories, over 35, 45 and 55 and I took charge of all of them. The preliminary rounds up to semi final stage, we’re refereed by the players themselves but the finals are refereed by a qualified referee,’’ he said.
Mlilo’s trip to Egypt came a few weeks after he officiated at the Lagos International Squash Classic which ran from 18 to 24 March in Nigeria.
Online Reporter