Chennai, 10-May-07:
The Ministry for Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) has revised its
categorization of sports disciplines in the country and has made
squash one of the priority sports in the country.
This comes in a wake of India achieving its first medal in the 2006
Asian Games held in Doha, and Indian players like Saurav Ghosal
and Ritwik Bhattacharya being in the top 50 list of the best
players in the world.
The boys who are turning out to be safer bets include Harinderpal
Singh, A. Parthiban, Naresh Kumar and Parth
Sharma all climbing higher in the recent world rankings.
Other than the men players the sport has also witnessed a steep rise
in the participation figures in the women’s category. Apart from
Joshna Chinappa there are junior players like Dipika Pallikal
Anwesha Reddy, Aparajitha Balamurukan, Saumya Karki,
Anaka Alankamony, Harita Omprakash. Of these Anaka and
Saumya were the semi finalists of the British Open held in UK last
year.
The Indian women's teams took the Gold Medal Women's Team at the SAF
Games 2004, and the Gold Medal Asian Junior Women's Team in Pakistan
2003,
 "This
means motivation for all the aspirant squash players and a better
scope of sincere participation to bring the sport to the forefront
of Indian sports.
"In the women's game, there used to be days when matches were
cancelled for no participation of women. But the situation is
definitely improving now with new possibilities in the current
women’s junior team."
National Coach, SRFI |
 "It's
truly fabulous that Indian Squash is getting its much deserved
recognition. This means a better funding from the government and
increased opportunities for the federation to improve the
infrastructural facilities of the state associations.
"The federation is keen to harness the talent of these junior
players by giving them exposure to all international tournaments."
Secretary General, SRFI
Saurav wins bronze in Doha |
