The New Year is round the corner. This is the time to look back and re-assess for the future. On the sports front, players would set fresh targets and plan their approach accordingly. Officials would hope for better results and chalk out their path. As far as academics are concerned the occasion is to make the checks and balances so as to make them more purposive and result-oriented. In short it is a time for overall re-alignment so to say.
Trending
For a sport like squash and possibly for some others too, the key look out apparently is to ensure the players, particularly those leaving junior ranks to keep serving the country in the best way. The reason is not far to seek. The sport has been confronting the issue of players leaving for higher education just when their squash career start blooming. Admission abroad is not uncommon because good achievements in squash ensure a place in some US Universities.
The struggle starts then for the player to balance play and studies. Even players who take to higher studies, not necessarily abroad face this dilemma. Like for instance Aparajitha Balamurukan, who had a fine junior career and even remained wanted in the senior ranks but slowly left the scene because of the demands of studies. Many players have had this problem. In recent times, it was Anaka Alankamony, who had so much to offer with her talent and she had excelled in the junior level not only in India but abroad too. Anaka’s achievements helped her with an easy access to University education in the US. Anaka may not be the last player to go this way.
Not that Anaka is out of touch with squash now, but the fact remains her focus was divided between squash and studies. And studies and sport need not be very friendly partners. Anaka was clear in her mind, while leaving, that she would be able to keep playing for the country. But sport is a hard business where constant touch is the key ingredient to keep the form intact. Anaka never misses an opportunity to visit the ISA, the place which made her a champion player, whenever she is in India.
However she has figured in few championships for India and also in major tournaments since her leaving and that points to her difficulties. Whether now she would regain the earlier passion and jump into the professional circuit (which was her original plan) only time will tell.
What happens when a player of that class leaves is to create a dent in the results of the Academy as also the country’s prospects. It was at the Indian Squash Academy(ISA) and under Major S. Maniam, Consultant Coach of Squash Rackets Federation of India(SRFI) and Cyrus Poncha, the national coach, that Anaka had risen in the sport. But then, as Maj Maniam puts it, “there is little that an Academy or a Federation can do about this.
Academics is important and balancing studies and squash cannot be easy,” he added while stating that the hope always was that when a player steps into the academy he or she would live up to all round expectations and keep the happy journey going.
Losing players to studies is not confined just to a sport or to a country. “It is a world-wide phenomena,” Maj Maniam said. But then some like Armanda Sobhy, a world junior champion from US showed that a proper balance can be found. But overall whether in Europe or in Egypt, the land of the champions, this problem exists but the sports continues to look ahead.
When the ISA was launched in 2000, one step that Mr N. Ramachandran, WSF President and former SRFI Secretary-General, whose vision it was to start the academy, thought of was to provide opportunities for talents from the economically weaker section of society to come up on the right lines. Also such talents, when developed, would remain to serve long. The ISA doors were opened for them. “The scheme is still on,” Maj Maniam said but the “ sad part is we are unable to get good material. Even the one or two picked do not stay. But we keep on trying to find talents from the Corporation schools.”
In India, the top three players in the ranking list- Saurav Ghosal, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal- have proved good stayers. Ghosal, in fact, had gone to England to do his graduate studies but steadfastly kept in touch with squash by getting trained by Malcolm Willstrop at Pontefract in Leeds. That helped him plunge into the professional circuit without losing much ground and the result has showed. Joshna and Dipika continued their college education in Chennai but never missed an opportunity to play in the tough circuit or for the country.
True squash is not a big money sport like tennis or cricket but for those in the Top 20 there is reason to remain motivated because there still are some returns after all the travels. Not that it can be motivating enough, but it is here that the passion comes to the fore. Ghosal, Joshna and Dipika have shown this and truly are models of inspiration for the up and coming players. But how many will stay to emulate them only future will tell. For now, the sport has to live with the prospects of some players performing, showing promise to do more and yet not certain for how long.
