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Press Reports 2005 |
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Squash
for cops Source : http://web.mid-day.com/sports/local/2005/november/124231.htm By Pradeep Vijayakar Mumbai: Mumbai’s cops
have been a sporting lot. They have played all kinds of sport from hockey,
football, cricket, indigenous games, swimming, basketball, martial arts
and even rugby. Now, they will be seen in racquet sports. A squash court
has come up at the Mumbai Police Gymkhana which has facilities for
swimming and cricket, besides a gym. The Police Commissioner will
inaugurate the courts on Thursday. The initiative for the
courts was taken by cops Iqbal Shaikh and Sanjay Barve who looked for
sponsors. Sah and Sanghi came up with a contribution of Rs 20 lakh and the
Squash Racquets Association of Maharashtra helped build it. Shiv Malhotra,
secretary, SRAM, said its members will be able to use the courts between
10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Police personnel can use it during the balance timings.
With proper coaching, kids of the police fraternity could throw up a champ
of the future. Already Ankita Sharma,
daughter of encounter cop Pradeep Sharma, is among the top three in the
Under-11 girls group. Sharma plays squash and wife Swikriti is an advisor
of Mahendra Agarwal’s Indian Squash Professionals, who have played their
role in squash development with free coaching for housing societies where
squash courts have been built. During Khalid
Ansari’s tenure as president of the SRAM, plans were unveiled for adding
more courts to the number in the city. The public courts of Andheri Sports
Complex were spruced up with sponsorship by Mid-day who donated Rs 6 lakh.
Similar plans were there for the Mulund public courts but they have not
been implemented. There were plans to
build courts under many flyovers in the city but nothing concrete has been
done. There is a standing offer from the Ruparel Group for courts at their
college campus at Matunga. A Thunderdome, if it comes up, could ideally be
located there. It is good to know that
the more courts are coming up. If the momentum is kept up, we could even
see the courts of Bandra’s Sea Rock Hotel come to life after they
‘died’ after the 1992 blasts. Film stars like the
late Mazhar Khan, Sunny Deol played there and Sanjay Dutt broke many a
racquet there. He could get another chance to do so at the Hotel now taken
over by the Claridge’s Group. |
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Lucky
Ritwik Jamshed Appoo, race horse owner and squash aficionado, had felt bad when an Indian Ritwik Bhattacharya could not win the Herald Maritime Classic title and the prize money that went with it, $5000 (about Rs 2.5 lakhs). Appoo had designed the event in such a way that those ranked below Ritwik (69) in the PSA rankings were invited. But Ritwik lost to Colombian Bernado Samper and Egyptian Ramy Ashour took the booty. Ritwik had also lost in the tournament’s first edition to Siddharth Suchde. But Appoo was determined to reward Ritwik, who has won a couple of Satellite events, at all costs.
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Ritwik
is eyeing top 30 ranking
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When hopes were almost squashed (Times of India, Mumbai - Rouge : 29/10/2005) |
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The Women’s International Squash Players’
Association was about a 100 strong in those days. It had about 30
tournaments worldwide, which were segregated into divisions A, B, C and D
depending on prize money. Div A was the highest and if you were good
enough to win a tournament there, you would get a paycheck of
approximately $5000. Not exactly a princely sum when you consider the
prize winnings of top ranked tennis players even then. Anyhow, what all of this meant was that I had to
raise money through sponsorships if I had any hope of touring and
competing on the world professional circuit. And boy, was that an
experience that I will remember for several lifetimes to come! You see,
the concept of playing professional sport of any sort didn’t really
exist in India in those days. The country suffered from cricket frenzy
even then and if it wasn’t cricket, the sponsors weren’t buying. To
top that, I was a woman — imagine my gall!! I got all sorts of reactions
ranging from an absent-minded pat on my head as though I was still five to
outright comments like “Why are you wasting your time and ours? You will
get married in a couple of years and then all this will be forgotten.”
It was a frustrating time and I came close to calling it quits many a
time, and probably would have, if it had not been for the support and
backing of those few enlightened people who had the foresight to see that
this was an opportunity for Indian sport internationally.
I went on to play the professional circuit for the
next five years, working my way up to world number 27 and Asia number 2,
while being national champion for those five years, thus proving my
detractors wrong.
Today, it’s wonderful to see the Sania Mirzas and
Joshna Chinappas (world junior British open squash champion) who are doing
India proud internationally. And for whom the prospect of raising money to
go and train and play internationally is much more a tangible reality than
it ever was.
‘Go for it girls’! The world is your oyster now and India is ready for women to make a mark in the world of international sport. |
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