CHENNAI: What is the point of conducting a national championship, if top Indian players choose not to participate? At the ongoing senior national squash championship, apart from Saurav Ghosal, many top stars have chosen to skip the event. While the top 10 women players have turned up, the likes of Vikram Malhotra, Mahesh Mangaonkar, Aditya Jagtap and Ramit Tandon are missing. Tandon, who was supposed to play, pulled out in the eleventh hour. However, the decision to not participate is going to cost them big.

According to Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) general secretary Cyrus Poncha, those who failed to show up have been ruled out for the upcoming Asian Team Championship scheduled in Kuala Lumpur from March 25-29. “We had informed the players about the nationals well in advance and made it clear that performance here will be a criteria for selecting the team for the Asian Championships. The SRFI will stick to its rules and will not consider these (Malhotra, Mangaonkar, Jagtap, Tandon) players,” Poncha said.

According to Poncha, players have chosen to play prize-money events instead of playing the nationals that will put them in line to represent the country. Tandon is an exception from that because he has an injury. But he, too, is ruled out. “We would have considered had he shown up in Chennai,” Poncha added.
With several leading men’s players out of contention, it looks like India will field a weak team in Kuala Lumpur. Speaking on the issue, Tandon has no problem with SRFI’s rule and believes that top players in the country should take part in the nationals.

However, in such an emergency situation, the 27-year-old hopes the federation comes up with an alternate plan next time. “I completely agree with the federation rules and am in good terms with Cyrus sir. However, I did not choose not to play nationals. I am not in a position to because of injury. But I think it’s too late now,” Tandon said

.Qualifiers decided 

Eight qualifiers in the men’s and women’s sections were identified after the qualification phase came to a close on Tuesday. The upset of the day was Suraj Chand of Maharashtra beating the higher-ranked Naveen Jangra of Services. In the women’s category, it was a happy day for Tamil Nadu, with five of the eight qualifiers representing the state.