Trinity Player Benches Self for Tournament

Weeks after his unsportsmanlike outburst brought scorn upon his team, Baset Chaudry, the senior captain of Trinity College’s men’s squash team, will not play in this weekend’s national singles championship. Chaudry, who shoved a Yale University freshman following the deciding match in last month’s team championship game, voluntarily withdrew from the upcoming tournament amid immense pressure to do so. He is the defending singles champion. Kenneth Chan, the Yale freshman who egged on Chaudry during their match, also has withdrawn from the tournament. A statement from the College Squash Association, the sport’s governing body, called the move “an appropriate action and an acknowledgment that sportsmanship is at the foundation of the sport of squash.” Acknowledging the barrage of bad press the sport has garnered since video of Chaudry and Chan’s on-court conflict spread on the Internet, the statement added, “one match should not cloud the 2009/10 season.”