CHENNAI: With no signs of any events happening in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, national sports federations are either mulling sending their players abroad for exposure tours or allowing them to take part in competitive games abroad. However, the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) is not in a hurry to take any such step.
Individually, players such as Joshna Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal are considering travelling abroad in October to participate in a Professional Squash Association (PSA) event, however, there are no plans from the federation to have any training camp for the next few months.
With the situation in the country getting worse every day — India, the second worst hit country, recorded a record single-day surge of 96,000-odd cases on Thursday — SRFI is not keen on restarting the season and taking the risk of exposing the players to the virus. Unlike a few federations which had to cancel training camps due to virus threat after restarting it, the squash body wants to wait for the situation to get better.
“There are individual PSA events beginning abroad. Players such as Joshna (Chinappa) and Saurav (Ghosal) are considering travelling to Egypt,” said SRFI secretary-general Cyrus Poncha. “But with regards to the resumption of activities in the country, we don’t think it is safe to conduct a meet yet. We have not had any discussions on when to restart the season. Unfortunately, the country has not yet opened enough to have tournaments,” added Poncha.
Travelling abroad for competitions seems to be the only option for players to get some competitive match practice for now. The six-month suspension of PSA World Tour due to the global crisis will end next Wednesday with the calendar resuming with Manchester Open (September 16-22), CIB PSA World Tour Finals (September 28-October 3 in Cairo, Egypt) and CIB Egyptian Open October 10-17 in Cairo). Joshna’s initial plan was to play in the UK event, extend her stay there — her training base is also Bristol — and then directly travel to Cairo for the Egyptian Open.
However, with the embassy not accepting Egyptian visas for Indians last month, she decided to skip the season opener. “If the travel situation is better next month, I hope to play in Egypt,” said Joshna. “Obviously, I’m nervous about travelling. There’s no connecting flight right now. The risk is a lot more now. But I’m willing to do it because at the end of the day this is what I’m training for. After a month of practice, I feel like I’m back to normal.”