Character Test

By Brett Erasmus

With the sportsmanship debate raging over the incidents at the College Squash finals a week ago, it is nice to see good character prevail. The Trinity number one has withdrawn from competing in the singles champs this weekend, even though he is the top seed and clear favorite to win the whole thing for the 4th time running. This means a college other than Princeton or Trinity may claim their first mens’ singles crown in over a decade..

The Trinity number one, Baset Chaudhry, is the defending national singles champion, a title he has won for the last 3 years. In fact, for the last 4 years he has been the US college number one squash player. Before him Princeton players had ruled. For the decade up until Chaudhry took over in 2007 Princeton players had taken the number one spot (aside from Bernardo Samper’s one victory). Chaudhry’s decision to step down has left the door wide open this year. Princeton’s top player and Trinity’s number two are both contenders for the title, but Harvard have a very strong number one, and, I suspect, they will break the Trinity/Princeton domination of the mens’ singles title.



Even without this knowledge, it must have been extremely difficult for Chaudhry to make the decision to step down from the tournament this weekend. Clearly what happened in his match against Yale was a lapse of judgement on his part. Stepping down must have been a very hard thing to do, but it was the right thing to do. I suspect, at the very least, the decision was welcomed by his coach, Paul Assaiante.

It is clear from Assaiante’s reaction at the game itself that he was not happy with what happened that day. It is also clear that he made Chaudhry apologize before the prizegiving. One can only wonder how much of the decision to apologize and withdraw from this weekend came from Assaiante. It is clear that he knew what to do from the start.

Assaiante said the following words in this regard:

“I would like to thank Baset for the tremendous effort he has given and the acclaim that he has brought over an extended period to his teammates and to the College, not just on the court, but equally important in the distinguished way he has carried himself as a student and leader. He is one of the most impressive student-athletes to step on this campus during my time here. We are proud to be associated with a young man of his quality… Baset is one of the most beloved figures on campus and a scholar-athlete who has achieved faculty honors. He had a youthful lapse of composure, and now he has voluntarily agreed to step down. It's a classy thing to do and we applaud him for it.”

He stood up for his number one player under fire. That’s takes character.

One man definitely passed the test.