By Tim Dunbar
Photo by Dean Kozanic
Press.co.nz

Top New Zealand squash talent is being developed by a former Australian star.  It looks like being good news for New Zealand squash players former Australian world No.3 Anthony Ricketts had to give the game away after having five operations on his right knee.

Ricketts has the best players in New Zealand training five days a week (up to three sessions a day) at the National Squash Centre in Auckland.

"The squad's structure set-up has been awesome," said New Zealand representative Martin Knight, who won the recent Professional Squash Association (PSA) South Island satellite tournament in Christchurch.

"There's anywhere up to about 10 or 12 of us (training) if everyone's in the country."

World No.94 Knight said the squad were revelling in having a former British Open champion at their disposal. "He's got a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience ... and he's passing it on to us."

Ricketts said he was lucky enough to be involved in the Australian Institute of Sport in Brisbane where he was "surrounded by people like (former world champions) Geoff Hunt and Rodney Martin" as coaches.

"Without them I definitely wouldn't have been the player I was," he said in Christchurch.

"The standards they instilled in me, now it's passed through to these guys."

And he revealed the structure he was setting up with the national squad was "modelled to a certain extent on that (AIS) programme.

Ricketts spent 11 years on the professional circuit and said the last couple had been a real struggle.

After the last of his knee surgeries, "basically the surgeons, doctors, physios said that's it" and he retired in January, still ranked in the world's top 10.

Having women's world No.7 Shelley Kitchen as a girlfriend, Ricketts had been coming to New Zealand pretty regularly.

Talks with Squash NZ had been going on for some time and, says Ricketts, "the time was right for them and me really".

"You know, I feel quite lucky it was here for me at the time. It's something I've always wanted to do."

While not much older than some of the senior players, the Australian believed his age was an advantage.

"Being young, I've got the advantage of coming right off the tour, so I know how it works and how the game needs to be played."

Ricketts pointed to things like the numerous changes in footwork patterns and strategies, and the significant move to 11-point rally in scoring.

"So being able to come off that, you know winning big titles, it helps. Yeah, there's a bit of rapport; they know it's serious business."

He made 17 finals appearances on the PSA world tour, including winning his "big three" of the Tournament of Champions (beating three world champions) and the British Open in 2005, and the Super Series world top-eight play-offs in 2006.

Described as one of the most exciting players on the circuit, Ricketts said his fitness level, his speed and determination took him a long way.

He did not object to the suggestion that he might have been feisty on the court.

"Yeah, there's no doubt I played a very aggressive game. I could call it determined, but it's obviously more correctly aggression. I tried to volley and play hard, play fast. And in the end when your strengths are your speed and fitness, there's always going to be a physical side to it."

Some of his most memorable clashes were with Frenchman Gregory Gaultier, including an acrimonious encounter in the 2003 world teams final where the players reportedly almost came to blows.

The 1.85m Australian said the pair definitely had a lot of respect for each other, but there were always matches that stood out "where there's a lot on the line and this is your livelihood".

"So when you get two guys that are quite aggressive, you know sometimes there's a bit of fireworks," he said with a laugh.

As a coach, his first international assignment will be taking the New Zealand team to the junior men's world championships in Zurich this month.

Ricketts reckoned "the sort of training we've started, I think they haven't really trained like that before" whereas other countries had been doing it for years.

But he said the junior quartet of Evan Williams, Cameron Jamieson, Lui Syder and Keegan Burkhart had taken keenly to the new regime.

His first impressions were New Zealand squash was in good hands "if these boys are the new generation".

There was definitely some talent there, but it would need nurturing, he said.

"I'm fairly confident we can get players back in the top rankings."

New Zealand, which boasted a world champion in Ross Norman in 1986, has had no men's players in the top 20 since the mid-1990s when Paul Steel reached a career-high 18th.

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