NEW DELHI: India's squash icon Saurav Ghosal was on Thursday appointed as the sports commissioner of the World Premier Squash, a new global professional competition scheduled to be held later this year.
Ghosal is India's only male player to reach the top 10 in the PSA World Rankings, Ghosal boasts 11 titles, nine Asian Games medals, and two decades of elite competition.
He has also served as the men's president of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) and as co-chair of the joint Athletes Commission of the PSA and World Squash, the sport's global governing body.
"As Sports Commissioner for World Premier Squash (WPS), Ghosal will set and oversee the league's complete sporting framework, spanning competition formats, player qualification pathways, and officiating standards," said a WPS statement on the league whose inaugural edition will be held in August.
"WPS combines elite professional competition with an open global pathway using multi-modal AI on the edge. Of the 24 players in the league, including reserves, eight will be elite professionals."
Through AI-enabled challenges hosted on the Future of Sports Platform (FSP), competitors worldwide can qualify for up to 16 of the remaining spots -- requiring no agents, no ranking history, and no geography. It is a direct, merit-based entry point," the release added.
Ghosal said the league has the potential to give the sport, which will make its debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, its next big player.
"The best squash players in the world came through communities, clubs and courts far from the spotlight. World Premier Squash honours that by using AI-enabled challenges on the FSP platform to connect every corner of the global squash family, and giving the sport's next great player, wherever they are, a genuine path to the top," said Ghosal.