'Squash deserves to be in the Olympics'

MUMBAI: Squash deserves to be part of the Olympic Games which would raise its profile and inject more money into its development, especially in India, former men's national champion Ritwik Bhattacharya said on Wednesday.
    
"I was watching the Beijing Games Opening (ceremony) and thought we (squash fraternity) deserved to be there. Once we enter the Olympics the profile of the game will raise and more money would also come in," said the 28-year-old Bhattacharya who is here to take part in the 33rd Bombay Gymkhana-HSBC Maharashtra State Open.
    
Bhattacharya's views were supported by his compatriot and top woman's player Joshna Chinnappa and Malaysian world no. 11 and men's top seed in the tournament here, Mohd Azlan Iskander.
    
"Squash is popular in our country though there are not many players to make up the numbers, people like the sport and the number one woman player in the world is a Malaysian (Nicole David)," Azlan said.
    
Bhattacharya and Joshna said that the government has shortlisted squash players, similar to what it has done concerning badminton and wrestling, to prepare them for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
    
"It's long overdue. The Squash Rackets Federation of India has sent the players' list, and I believe it consists of ten males and as many females-including juniors-to the government.
    
"It will help us in preparing for the Commonweath Games (in Delhi) and Asian Games (in China) in 2010," Bhattacharya said.

The former India number one also wants public sector units to employ squash players to give them job security and help them to concentrate only in playing the game like the PSUs do in the case of badminton and billiards players.
    
"I think the squash structure also needs to be improved so that at least one major national-level event is held every month," declared Bhattacharya, currently ranked 58 in the world.
    
Iskander hailed the support for squash players from the Malaysian government and the sports council of his country without which, he said, he couldn't have achieved anything of note on the professional squash circuit.
    
"In Malaysia, the government fully supports an elite group of four men and four women players," said Sikander who is just one rung below compatriot Ong Beng Hee in the world rankings.
    
Bhattacharya, who achieved his career-best PSA ranking of 38 two years ago, said he had a poor run in 2007 and was confident of an improved show this year. "I'm working hard", he said.
    
He also hailed national champion Saurav Ghosal's best-ever title-triumph in the recent 15,000 USD PSA event at Bordeaux in France. "His victory is really good for Indian squash and Sourav's is playing at a higher level".
    
Joshna also felt she performed poorly last year but had shown distinct improvement this season.
    
"I train in the UK with the junior men players and thus don't feel absence of competition (which could have been the case had she been in India)", she said.