World Squash Federation President N Ramachandran has praised the sport’s athletes and their player bodies, the Professional Squash Association (PSA) and Women’s Squash Association (WSA), for their contribution to initiatives over the past two months, which have significantly boosted the momentum behind the sport’s bid to join the Olympic Games programme in 2020.
The International Olympic Committee’s recent inspection at the Hong Kong Open, he believes, could be a turning point in the game eventually attaining Olympic recognition. “Squash has enjoyed a tremendous recent run — beginning with the successful IOC inspection visit to the Hong Kong Open early in December, and followed shortly afterwards by our presentation to the IOC Programme Commission in Lausanne. And this weekend, we were not only treated to the best live TV coverage of the sport I have ever seen, on Sky and Eurosport, but also an avalanche of positive press coverage around the world — all of which is inspiring me to feel that we have made huge progress since our last Olympic bid four years ago,” he said.
The improved tele-visual aspect of the game would convince the inspection committee, he averred. “We know that one of our challenges was the tele-visual aspect of squash, but thanks to the significant investment in SquashTV by our colleagues at the PSA, our coverage is now first-rate/ The clarity of the ball, the regular use of super slow mos, and the introduction of ‘video reviews’ have all contributed towards a television ‘product’ which is streets ahead of what we were used to in the past. And this was endorsed by new broadcasters adding squash to their programming this weekend, expanding our reach to a potential worldwide audience of more than 300 million,” he pointed out.
Ace cyclist Victoria Pendleton, a gold medallist at London 2012, joined fellow British medallists Joanna Rowsell and Greg Searle at last week’s PSA World Series Finals in London and voiced their support for including squash in the Olympic umbrella.