Date:04/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/04/stories/2007120411262200.htm

Sport - Squash

Teams arrive for World championships

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: With the start of the ICL-World men’s team squash championship scheduled for December 6, the competing teams have slowly begun to arrive.

The New Zealanders are here as are the South Africans and Pakistanis.

A few members of the Australian team have also quietly come in and, as is expected of the highly competitive side, straightaway began serious practice.

The others have been getting in some practice too. The New Zealand coach Dave Clarke said, “the boys have been training hard. Playing for the country has that added dimension which makes the players worker harder.”

The Pakistan team is under coach, Fahim Gul, who had, on an earlier occasion, come to the city with the Singapore side. “I have just taken over this side six months ago,” Gul said on his new assignment.

With a young group under him, Gul said he hopes to mould it into a powerful force, the kind Pakistan squash is famous for. “In the short time that I have been with these boys — Atlas Khan, Mansoor Zaman, Farhan Mehbood and Yasir Butt — they have shown lot of enthusiasm and gone up in rankings,” he said.

Indians Saurav Ghosal, Siddarth Suchde and Gaurav Nandrajog are already in the city. Ritwik Bhattacharya is expected to arrive on Monday night.

“It will be great to participate in the championship at home. In world squash, it is the day’s form that matters. So I am hoping for a good show,” said the national champion Ghosal.