Pakistan's Waseem Khatri was off to flying colours in the Early Bird tournament ahead of the World Scrabble Championship, scheduled from July 21-25 in Las Vegas, USA.
Khatri achieved a massive milestone by winning the Early Bird tournament which was held just before the world championship. He has become the only Pakistani to win the event. Last year, Waseem finished second in the tournament.
Now, North American Championship will be played from July 15-19 at the same venue. The last tournament of this two-week-long scrabble fiesta will be the World Scrabble Championship (WESPAC).
Apart from Waseem, Tariq Pervez, Mohammad Inayatullah, Hassan Hadi, Hammad Hadi, and Hasham Hadi will participate in the world event.
Pakistan lose four players due to visa issue
Visa issues forced Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) to curtail its contingent for the World Scrabble Championship.
The players including Daniyal Sannaullah, Sohaib Sannaullah, Rashid Khan, and Ali Rashid couldn't get visas.
Tariq Pervez, who is vice president of PSA, confirmed that these players couldn’t get an earlier date for visa interviews from the US consulate and were offered dates from the year 2024.
Pakistan also had to withdraw from the two reserved seats it got for this championship. These seats were offered to Syed Imad Ali and Ali Salman —the youth scrabble championship winners of years 2021 and 2022.
Tariq confirmed that these players couldn’t participate in the championship due to their “tough schedule of studies.”.