HCL happy with its role in promoting Indian squash

With the World Cup in Chennai, from June 13 to 17, to be shown ‘live’ on Jio Cinema, with interesting statistics on the lines of tennis matches, along with interesting analysis, it is an exciting time for the game in the country.

Photo of, Rajat Chandolia (left), Head of Brand HCL, and Cyrus Poncha, the secretary general of SRFI, strike a happy note during a PSA tournament. | Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

Indian squash has been moving from good health to high strength in recent years. With the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) collaborating judiciously with the government and HCL, the public-private partnership has taken the game forward.

With the World Cup in Chennai, from June 13 to 17, to be shown ‘live’ on Jio Cinema, with interesting statistics on the lines of tennis matches, along with interesting analysis, it is an exciting time for the game in the country.

While Saurav Ghosal, Joshana Chinappa, Abhay Singh and Tanvi Khanna get ready to project a positive image of the sport on court at the Express Avenue Mall, the strategic partner HCL is delighted to have played a key role in the last few years, with a promise to sustain the development initiatives a lot further.

With the Tamil Nadu government supporting the World Cup in a big way, HCL would be happy to promote the event in the best possible way, by spending about 20% of the budget,

More than the World Cup, HCL is keen to follow up with high performance camps for the top Indian juniors at the Shiv Nadar University from June 19 to July 2. The young players are scheduled to compete in the Junior World Championship and the Asian junior championship.

With the government enhancing support for SRFI, especially taking care of the prize money aspect of hosting PSA tournaments, HCL has been focusing on other areas to strengthen the game.

“There are interesting programs in the pipeline for the juniors. In fact, we are trying to go further down into the grassroots level and encourage players in the 6-12 age group. For a start, we will do it in six or seven specific cities, in about five to ten schools each”, said Rajat Chandolia, Head of Brand HCL, in an interaction with Sportstar on Friday.

Touching upon the start of association with the game in 2016 with limited events including the national championships, Rajat said that it was a 360 degree support towards development of the game in the last few years after the lull during the pandemic.

Quite pleased with the healthy ecosystem created by the national federation, HCL is about to introduce technology in a big way through the right agencies to step up the quality of the game.

“With the Squash podium programme, we have been able to host smaller PSA events, and a junior event along with it, to help a number of players with invaluable exposure. We have also been helping in conducting the coaches clinic, referees clinic”, said Rajat.

In short, HCL is delighted to put Indian squash on a sound foundation, to launch it better on the world stage.