CHENNAI: The World Squash Federation, which concluded its conference and AGM here Monday, has confirmed the launch of a revamped World Cup in 2023, to be held in Chennai.
The WSF AGM also elected two vice-presidents, announced new board members, and the affiliation of three National Federation members to conclude its three-day conference.
The WSF announced the relaunch of the World Cup in 2023 following the signature of a multi-year agreement with the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI), with the first edition of this new format World Cup to take place in Chennai in 2023.
WSF president Zena Wooldridge said: “India is both an important territory and valued partner for the World Squash Federation, with a strong track record of supporting the WSF and delivering some memorable world events.
“After a three-year break in our conference due to Covid, this conference and AGM has been critically important and has been hugely successful in bringing the WSF family back together in person and we are most appreciative of the hospitality and generous support of the SRFI for hosting us in Chennai. We look forward to our renewed collaboration to support a transformation of our sport over the next few years.”
Wooldridge also confirmed that the World Cup would be followed by a world event. She was optimistic that the city could host the 2025 edition of the World Cup too. “We have got the support to bring the new World Cup to Chennai. The World Cup was previously held in 2011. It hasn’t been hosted since then. It will be a revamped one and it will most likely be a mixed team event. We have not decided on the qualification criteria as of now,” she told New Indian Express on the sidelines of the event.
Meanwhile, India’s Debendranath Sarangi has been re-elected for a second term. Sarangi is the current president of the SRFI and has held a number of senior administrative roles in the Tamil Nadu government and non-executive director roles within major Indian companies. He is joined on the WSF board by new member Susan Devoy from New Zealand.
Devoy maintained the number one position in the world squash rankings continuously between 1983 and 1992 and has since held a range of senior leadership roles within New Zealand including Race Relations Commissioner between 2015 and 2018.
The WSF board is now comprised of the following members: Zena Wooldridge (UK), Pablo Serna (Colombia), Karim Darwish (Egypt), Debendranath Sarangi (India) and Susan Devoy (New Zealand).
This year’s AGM also saw the unanimously approval for the ratification of full membership of Lithuania, Romania and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Member Nation Federations also approved by a large majority the motions to amend the Squash57 Standard Rules with effect from January 2023 and to support the introduction of a separate U23 Men’s and Women’s Individual Championships to the WSF calendar.
Narayana Ramachandran, SRFI patron, added: “We are delighted to host another WSF event in Chennai. We will work closely with World Squash, the Tamil Nadu government and the Tamil Nadu Squash Rackets Association to ensure the event is a great success.”
Several attempts in the past to make squash an Olympic sport had been futile. There are talks that the world body has been trying to push squash to be included in the 2028 Olympics. “We are one of the shortlist of nine. We have a chance, we have made a good submission. Being in the shortlist of nine is itself an achievement in itself,” Wooldridge told NIE.
Wooldridge noted that the performance of Indian players this year was a good sign for the sport. “In the world doubles championship in Glasgow, India won its first two WC titles, in women’s doubles and mixed doubles. That was really exciting as it gave the sport a lot of profile in India. Then Saurav Ghosal winning a bronze at the Commonwealth Games too was good. India is really important market for us because it’s growing. India has massive potential for sport,” she said.
“We have launched our own OTT platform. We have at the moment squash TV, they are doing a good job in terms of quality. Quality of court, lighting, it is really good, we can still do some production enhancements,” Wooldridge concluded.
