A former head coach of Scottish Squash has revealed that his attempt to blow the whistle on problems with how the sport was being run were dismissed by sportscotland staff without investigation.

Stuart Crawford admits to having had an at times fractious relationship with his immediate predecessor Roger Flynn, the globally respected Australian who has offered a withering critique of how the sport is being run under Scottish Squash chairman Jim Hay. However Crawford also credited Flynn with revolutionising squash in Scotland and consequently contacted HeraldSport to give his backing to the man under whom he worked for five years.

Crawford resigned from Scottish Squash 18 months ago and on doing so sought to raise concerns about Hay and chief executive Maggie Still, to be told by Scottish Squash’s sportscotland partnership manager that their focus was on ‘maintaining a strong relationship’ with the officials whose behaviour he was questioning. Now enjoying a new life coaching in the USA, the Glasgow 2014 Scottish Commonwealth Games team member had consigned the episode to history until last weekend’s revelations in HeraldSport about the staff cull that has led ex-employees to speak out about their treatment and their concerns about the organisation’s hierarchy.

He sees parallels between the rebuffal of his attempt to sound the alarm and the treatment of Jess Varnish, the cyclist who sparked an enquiry into how the multi-million pound British Cycling programme was run. Both British Cycling and UK Sport have been heavily criticised for the way they have responded to the investigation, however Crawford’s concerns were not even given a hearing, leading him to observe: “In many respects there are similarities with the British Cycling saga, except with 5% of the public funding, 1% of the public interest and 0% of the performance enhancing drug allegations.”

He said he had anticipated the lack of reaction from the organisation that provides Scottish Squash with most of its funding, but was dismayed when the only action from sportscotland officials was to pass his message on to the main target of his criticism, resulting in his notice period being cut short.

“It did not surprise me that I got the response I did to my message to the sportscotland representatives, but I felt it was my obligation to let them know I was going and offer to tell them why. What I didn’t expect was that my message would be shared with Maggie,” he said.

“I am very loyal to and passionate about the players themselves and still follow their progress closely so I was keen to see them succeed and help where I could. I didn’t want to just abandon them. However about a month into my three month notice notice period I was called to a meeting by Maggie and (performance director) Bob Easson where she produced a copy of my email (to sportscotland) and told I had 24 hours to clear my office because I could no longer be trusted to serve the best interests of the programme.”

Crawford had been acting head coach when Still was appointed in 2015 after what had already been a period of turmoil that appears to have continued unabated with a stream of staff departures. Her management style, allied to that of Hay, quickly caused him unease.

“Anyone asking difficult questions is immediately persona non grata,” he said.

“If you didn’t go along with everything that was said to you then you were just a problem. I think she got the job because of her willingness to do what she was told by Jim Hay and the sportscotland reps. They were looking for someone they could control and she also then obviously wanted everyone else to toe the line.”

On a personal level he has no regrets about leaving, but remains unhappy about having felt the need to.

“I have mixed feelings about my departure,” said Crawford.

“On the one hand I feel angry and bitter on behalf of the sport because I care about it, but I am delighted to have got out when I did. I think I got off the Titanic before it sank. What says it all is that when I took the decision to resign I walked away with absolutely nothing else lined up. I reached a point where I’d rather have no job than continue to work under that regime.”

Crawford believes there are questions for board member Easson, as well as the chairman and CEO to answer.

“Bob was charged with leading the performance programme through a difficult transition but ultimately contributed nothing to the process and in many ways held it back even further,” he said.

“He is a product of the sportscotland system... someone who is willing to serve his superiors while refusing to ask questions of them. It’s no surprise to me that he and Maggie work well together. I imagine they provide constant reassurances about what a great job the other is doing while being oblivious to reality.”