World Cup: Ghosal & Co. brace for squash’s T20 challenge

CHENNAI: Opponents and playing styles may keep varying for professional squash players, but the 11-point game is a constant. They have trained in that mode all their lives, and hence a sudden shift to a 7-point game is a radical one. The Squash World Cup, which kicks off at the Express Avenue mall here on Tuesday, features a novel 7-point, best-of-five games format, posing a unique challenge.In other words, this abbreviated format can called squash’s T20 and it’s to be seen how the players cope with it.
India’s top-ranked player and long-standing leading light Saurav Ghosal is alive to the altered dynamics. “The game has evolved into short, sharp stuff anyway, but I guess you’re talking even shorter, even sharper play now. We’ll still have long rallies, but getting good starts will probably be key because you don't have as much scope to come back if you're behind in the score,” Ghosal tells TOI. Having never played this format before, Ghosal has been preparing for it in the run-up to the tourney, but with no prior match experience of the sort, reckons adaptability will be of the essence.
With the event scheduled at the fag end of the squash season, and just ahead of the PSA World Tour Finals starting on June 20, the world’s highest-ranked players have given it a miss. First-seed Egypt possess five top-10 players each in the men’s and women’s singles category, but none of those stars will be in action at the World Cup. Nevertheless, Egypt remain the stiffest hurdle to the crown for the second-seeded India, who face off against Hong Kong in their opening Pool B match on Tuesday.
Despite the absence of the crème de la crème, Ghosal believes there are plenty of players to watch out for and be wary of. “Every team has some good players. There’s Satomi Watanabe from Japan who’s the number Asian girl in the professional rankings, and the first Japanese player ever to make top-20. There’s Aly Abou Eleinen from Egypt who’s had a superlative season and has risen to world No. 22. They also have Fayrouz Aboelkheir, who’s very young (17 years old) but I have seen her play — she’s entertaining and a very promising player,” he says.
The fact that the tournament will feature equal number of male and female players (two each) for the first time is a definite step towards gender equity. Ghosal opines: “It's been done exactly with that in mind. Squash as a sport is at the forefront of gender equality on the world stage and this tournament is a continuation of what has happened in the squash world for the last 5-10 months.”
The veteran India campaigner hopes all these fresh moves will help popularise the sport in India. “The World Sports Federation, along with the Squash Rackets Federation of India is trying to innovate a little bit. I hope the innovations achieve the desired effect of making the game more exciting and bringing more like non-squash viewers to watch the sport.”