Squash in India

[BSharma]

Indian squash players are improving also. Read the website to see a nice summary of some of their achievements. Ritwik Bhattacharya has won two titles recently in professional squash.

http://www.ispsquash.com/IndianNewsMisc.htm

[Kumar]

Indian girls reach the last four in Junior world championship beating US 2-1 , they are playing top seeded Egypt next

http://www.hindu.com/2003/08/28/stories ... 611800.htm

[kathiresan_v]

17 year old Saurav Ghosal from Chennai qualified in and reached the final in his PSA tour debut at the Country View Squash Open in Kuala Lumpur.

However, in the Final:
[1] Mike Corren (AUS) bt [Q] Saurav Ghosal (IND) 15-14, 15-6, 15-10 (42m)

http://www.squashtalk.com/html/news/sep ... 09-260.htm

still..a commandable performance by this youngster.

Kathir

[Dhruv]

Hey thanks,

We are finding these snippets from all over.

I guess I'll have to update the front page news more often.

[kathiresan_v]

Indian Squash (SRFI) Website launched on the 14 oct '03

The India's no.1 player Ritwik, 23 is currently world no.84 after his two back to back PSA titles in New Zealand, and is hopeful to qualify for coming world championship in Lahore. The juniors Saurav Ghosal and Gaurav Nandrajog are just debuted into PSA tour and are promising.
The boys are in preparation for the next 2 PSA satellite events namely the Buler Open, Hong Kong from 11-16 November and the Chennai PSA Indian Open from 2-7 December 2003.
Please see The Complete Coverage.

Overall, the future is bright for indian squash and as discussed in the other forum, on the girls side Joshna [machine] Chinnapa is very special talent for us and looking ahead for PSA tour dubut in Nov'03 at Hong Kong open.

Kathir

[Rishav]

this remains the only game where the pakis are clearly ahead of india!!!

[kathiresan_v]

don't worry..we can take over (or) match them atleast in the near future..hope soooooooon..... but on the women side I think Pak never had any good player.

Kathir

[BSharma]

Take away the Khan clan in Pakistan and their influence on squash and India can better Pakistan in squash also. I am sure that the Khan clan members are born with a "squash" gene because they are superb players.

[kathiresan_v]

Current wrorld ranking of our professional players: -

Pos Player Country Total Num Tournaments Average Last Pos

83 RITWIK BHATTACHARYA IND 221.500 10 27.688 88
152 SAURAV GHOSAL IND 47.250 2 5.906 158
175 GAURAV NANDRAJOG IND 28.500 2 3.563 183
224 SUPREET SINGH IND 11.250 2 1.406 222

Sourav, Gaurav and Supreet are turned professional this year only and have played each 2 tournaments only. I predict by another one year we will have a few top 50 kinds of professionals.

Kathir

[kathiresan_v]

Gaurav Nandrajog reached the quartefinal in the Buler Squash Challenge Cup, Hong Kong

Lost to 2nd seed in the quarterfinal,
[2] Callum O'Brien (NZL) bt Gaurav Nandrajog (IND) 17-15, 15-5, 15-5

No news on the other players....

Kathir

[kathiresan_v]

PSA tour last week - Re/Max Tech Valley Squash Open, Albany, New York, USA

Ritwik (3rd seed) reached the semifinal and ultimaely lost to the 2nd seed,

[2] Alex Stait (ENG) bt [3] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) 15-12, 15-9, 15-6

Kathir

[kathiresan_v]

India is conducting PSA Super SAtellite event at Chennai 'Chennai Open 2003' from 2-7 Dec 2003.

Visit the link: Chennai open 2003

The entry list also there.

Kathir

[kathiresan_v]

Why so much of popularization for this sport all of a sudden in India. Maharastra is planned to construct squash courts in all district capitals.

Here is the article Squash courts in every districts

Kathir

[Dhruv]

Well the ministries in India have always had some money, its a matter of what they do with it. A high profile example the defence ministry gets X rupees. Somehow they always spend X/10 rupees so the rest goes back to the govt. With other ministreis the same thing even at the state level. They all get a certain set amount of cash. Now they can either spend it on development (of their personal coffers or sports in general) or I believe it goes back into a pot.
Now, even though might not realise it the govts in India are being slightly more responsible atleast in some places and more money is going where it was allocated to go. I guess one thing is these assembly elections that are probably the first in recent memory to be fought on development and good governance rather than caste/religion etc etc. Delhi for example the Cong will probably win because the govt has done or is seen as having done a good job in general. In MP the BJP will probably win as the Cong govt is seen to have failed on development. Yes this is a simplification of a lot of complex issues etc but in general this is hopefully a trend that will catch on and govts will spend more on development in general. Infrastructure, health, schools the like.
Step 1 of a country moving slowly towards a more economically developed society.

PS: Maybe next year I will start an economic development forum or something similar on this board somewhere in the general chit chat area. It has always interested me.

[david]

Another reason for the sudden spurt in squash activities is the association.

The National federation is doing really well after they roped in Maj Maniam of Malaysia to chart as plan for the development of the game. In two years Maj has done wonders.

Now they have a tie-up with sponsors and so courts are coming up everywhere. THey even have a tie up with Kendriya Vidyalayas all over India.

Even the players are doing well. Especially, joshna chinnappa of chennai.