England Seeded To Reclaim Men's World Squash Title

England are favourites to reclaim the title they won in 1995 and 1997, according to the seedings for next month's Men's World Team Championships issued by today by the World Squash Federation.

The 2005 championships, which will be staged in Islamabad from 8-14 December, will feature teams representing 22 countries, including defending champions and record eight-time winners Australia; 1999 champions Egypt; and hosts Pakistan, six-times champions between 1977 and 1993.

Iran will be making their debut in the biennial championships this year.

Led by world No5 Lee Beachill, and including world No7 Peter Nicol, world No8 James Willstrop (winner of last week's Qatar Classic in Doha) and world No11 Nick Matthew, England are fielding one of the strongest teams in the history of the championships.

However, second seeds Egypt will be led by world No4 Amr Shabana, backed by fellow top ten player Karim Darwish, and third seeds France feature world No1 Thierry Lincou and world No12 Gregory Gaultier. Fourth seeds Australia will be led by world No3 Anthony Ricketts, due to the ineligibility of David Palmer due to WSF suspension.

The teams will be playing initially in six qualifying pools, before the top two teams in each pool progress to have a tilt at the title in the knockout stage of the tournament, while the remaining teams play off for places 13-22.

The pool line-ups (with seeding in brackets) are:
Pool A: [1] England, [12] South Africa, [13/18] Kuwait, [19/22] Austria
Pool B: [2] Egypt, [11] New Zealand, [13/18] Germany, [19/22] Iran
Pool C: [3] France, [10] India, [13/18] Ireland
Pool D: [4] Australia, [9] Netherlands, [13/18] Finland, [19/22] USA
Pool E: [5] Canada, [8] Wales, [13/18] Hong Kong
Pool F: [6] Malaysia, [7] Pakistan, [13/18] Scotland, [19/22] Spain

Event hosts Pakistan Squash Federation report that preparations are in full swing to hold the World Men's Team Championships in a befitting manner at Islamabad.

The renovation of the Roshan Khan Complex as well as the Mushaf Squash Complex has been completed. The players, officials and guests will be accommodated at Marriot Hotel Islamabad for the duration of the championships.

Prior to the championships, the WSF Referees Conference is also planned on 6th and 7th December at the championship hotel. The conference will be conducted by England's Tony Parker and Fahim Gul from Pakistan. In addition to 24 Pakistanis, approximately 26 referees from Kuwait, Iran, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Chinese Taipei and Germany are expected to attend.