Commentaire de (March 17, 2008 4:12 PM Zagreb/hrv) suite à un article d'Oliver Irish paru sur le blog du Guardian avant la victoire de Mohamed El Shorbagy aux championnats du monde ce 1er août en Suisse:
Well done to Oliver for writing such a good article, I was wondering if we would ever hear anything written on this subject. Also very good points added on subsequent posts.
Squash can be a great sport to watch, it just depends on the match. Anyone who ever saw Jonathon Power play live (something I will never forget, even though it was only an exhibition match I saw) would be left in no doubt that this is a sport with immense potential. I was also at a small PSA tournament in Europe at the start of March, and one of the semifinals was a fantastic spectacle, won by a young Welshman called Jethro Binns. Awe-inspiring stamina!
The potential that squash has has unfortunately been limited over the years by the APPALLING standard of administration and promotion done by the world governing body and the major squash federations in those countries where the sport is most popular.
It is also a serious problem, as previous posts have stated, that squash courts are being identified as unnecessary "wastes of space" by these stupid corporate gyms, who are obviously run by people too thick to notice that there is actually healthy demand for GOOD QUALITY squash courts, but obviously that demand does not exist for courts that have HOLES IN THE FRONT WALL, LIGHTS WITHOUT LIGHTBULBS, DUST, DIRT, PIECES OF FLUFF AND OTHER ASSORTED DETRITUS ON THE FLOOR, DOORS THAT DON'T CLOSE PROPERLY, etc. etc. etc.
One of the best things about the British Isles has always been the tradition of squash playing on all levels throughout the country, and this has been reflected in the numbers of top professionals we've had on the pro tour over the years. However this success has been threatened by the closure of courts, to the extent that many people no longer have adequate facilities to use, and have had to stop playing, or cannot play as frequently as they'd like.
In an age when there is a lot of talk about obesity, over-indulgence of alcohol, food, excessive violence, aggression and so on, it would be nice if the government would get behind the sport of squash, because there is surely a strong case to suggest that this great sport can offer us a wealth of answers to the above problems:
- A dynamic, fun, social sport that people of any age can play
- A very affordable, egalitarian sport - you can pick up all the equipment you need for practically nothing
- A game of squash burns more calories than any other sport, and participants use more muscles throughout the body than any other sport, so you get more of a work-out but also have great fun during it - far more fun than being in the gym, which is a chore
- As one previous post stated eloquently, "you can hit the bejaysus out of the ball but still keep it in play", so you can vent your aggression in a controlled environment and get fit doing it - surely this is better (and more fun) for young people than drinking White Lightning on street corners and stabbing people?
- Britain already has a wealth of squash stars in the PSA and WISPA rankings, they could get behind a government campaign to HIT THE COURT. Come to think of it, what are legends like John White and Peter Nicol doing these days since they retired? Get them on board, too.
I was recently speaking to a young Egyptian professional at a tournament (ranked in top 90 PSA), I asked him what it's like in Egypt these days with squash. He said everybody plays there, it's like the top sport in Egypt! I asked him about the clubs, is there sufficient capacity for so many people to play (huge population they have there). He said no problem for that, there are so many clubs there, so there's enough capacity. And that all the kids are playing, which is clearly the key thing, and the reason why they have so many top players including guys like Amr Shabana (world #1) and Wael El Hindi (top 10 player) to name but a few.
These guys like Shabana and El Hindi have profiles akin to that of David Beckham in Egypt. How did Egypt get to be the leading force in world squash? We need to learn from them. They're not playing on broken, chipped, dusty courts. They're not turning their squash clubs into apartment blocks and putting bloody exercise bikes and rowing machines into the areas where people enjoy playing squash. Egypt is a country of civilised, highly intelligent and forward-thinking people. They know what they're doing. If we want Britain to continue to have players of the calibre of, say, John White, Peter Nicol and now James Willstrop, then we need to learn from the Egyptians. And the British government needs to get behind squash, which could pretty much single-handedly wipe out obesity, violence and lack of direction which unfortunately characterise British youth these days.
