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By Oliver Irish
From Guardian SportBlog
How can squash become anything more than a minority sport?
Britain currently boasts 13 male squash players in the world's top 50, including three in the top 10. On the women's side, it has 11 players in the world's top 50, with three in the top 10. The Lawn Tennis Association, buoyed only by the aberrational success of the Murray brothers, can only dream of that level of domination.
But if we're so very good at squash, why do we care so little about the professional game? The names of Jonah Barrington and the Khans, Jahangir and Jansher, may resonate with sports fans of a certain age, but who has heard of James Willstrop, Nick Matthew or Peter Barker, the British trio in the world's top 10?
Squash receives virtually no coverage in the mainstream media. Visit the sport homepage of any national newspaper's website, Guardian Unlimited included, and you'll find that the pecking order is roughly the same: the Premier League's 'big four' clubs, football not involving the big four, cricket, rugby, Lewis Hamilton, Andy Murray, golf, horse racing, Ricky Hatton/Joe Calzaghe (delete where applicable), and, finally, 'other sport'.
Squash always comes under 'other sport', along with a random assortment of other unfashionable activities, such as hockey, badminton and bowls. All these three sports feature in the Olympics but squash is not even an Olympic event.
The 2012 London Games would have been the ideal platform for British players to demonstrate their skill, but the IOC decided not to replace softball and baseball, the two sports that were voted off the 2012 programme, with any new activities. Squash was first in the queue but it's still waiting for the Olympic call. Yet without a Steve Redgrave-type figure to both inspire young people to take up the sport and to attract sponsorship, how can squash become anything more than a minority sport?
There are only two times in the last decade that I remember squash breaking free from its cramped, 'other sport' annex. Firstly, when Peter Nicol, a former world champion, chose to compete for England, rather than his native Scotland. Inevitably, he was branded a traitor. Secondly, when Vicky Botwright, a fine player in her own right, declared a desire to wear a skimpy, thong-style outfit on court - cue tabloid-friendly pictures of Botwright wearing such an outfit. She later claimed that it was nothing more than a PR stunt, designed by the Women's International Squash Players Association (who go by the world-beating acronym WISPA). The stunt succeeded in generating a lot of interest in Botwright's bottom, but very little interest in women's squash.
Sports editors care little for squash, but they would argue that they give the public what they want - and the public don't want squash, clearly. In truth, we are a nation of squash players, not squash lovers. Many thousands of Britons play the game, myself included, but who goes to watch a squash tournament?
On Friday, I saw the aforementioned Willstrop defeat Australia's Cameron Pilley in the final of the ISS Canary Wharf Classic, a world ranking event now in its fifth year. I was not surprised to discover that the audience was mainly comprised of white, male thirty/fortysomethings, most of whom had a firm grip on a bottle of Budweiser or Kronenbourg. We were in Canary Wharf after all, and on a Friday evening. These City boys, clad typically in pink shirts, seemed to be having a fine time, even if some of them seemed unsure as to the identity of the competitors. 'Come on Cam!' cheered one. 'Why are you cheering the Aussie?' his mate replied. 'Am I?'
Squash makes for a surprisingly good spectator sport, especially in the modern era, where glass-walled courts and white balls make it easy to follow the action. There are longer, more absorbing rallies than in tennis, whilst the combination of power and finesse is impressive. However, the constant intervention of the referee to adjudicate on lets and strokes (when one player is judged to have interfered with the other's shot, the rally can be replayed - a let - or a free point may be awarded to the player who was impeded - a stroke) becomes rather frustrating, for players and audience alike.
Generally speaking, though, it's a fast, dynamic game: Willstrop took five sets to get the better of Pilley, yet the match lasted little more than an hour. Squash's perennial problem lies in the player-audience dynamic. The players are contained by four walls, which makes it difficult for spectators to relate to those on court, even in a live setting. I did not feel that I gained much by watching the players in the flesh, rather than on TV. Maybe, in the distant future, some genius will figure out a way to remove the walls. Until then, squash will stay in its little box, marked 'other sport'.
A Sampling of Comments
Chipo
The problem with squash is that while it is without doubt one of my favourite sports to play, there is virtually no attraction to watching other people play it.
This makes it very difficult for it to penetrate the mainstream, as with table tennis and badminton, both great fun to play, but pretty boring to watch.
jmitch
I too went to Canary Wharf , never been to see squash before, just play, but it was really good. (neither a City worker or own a pink shirt)
It should be in the Olympics it is one of the most played sports in the country, it is truely global, it is highly skillful, needs high levels of fitness and the olympic gold would be the highest plateau a player could reach and would be the main event for squash. Unlike football, tennis and baseball.
I think the British organisers have really betrayed the sport and its players (in their millions) up and down the country. I cannot think of a more fitting olympic sport especially in a British olympics. Just shows the ICC and its members don't give a damn about people getting fit and recucing obesity. A new squash centre in London would have arrested the convergance of squash courts into gyms. People are much more likely to get and stay fit playing competitive sport and the British people have chosen squash for this for years, but it is getting more and more difficult to find decent courts in London.
swisspotter
I took up squash just over a year ago and absolutely love it, i was disappointed to see that the Canary Wharf tournament had passed me by, would love to have seen some of it on tv. I think the first thing would be to improve the marketing of squash and increase the exposure. Particularly aim at students and young professionals due to it being quite a cheap game to take up and is not too time consuming. I totally agree that the sport needs a Steve Redgrave, someone who is world class and actively takes part in introducing the sport to the general public. Squash's presence on the internet is also pretty awful, I tried to look up tutorials and clips on youtube and although there were some the selection was very poor.
mroli
Squash is a great game to play as it allows you to welly the bejaysus out of a ball and still keep things in play. It also rewards touch and skill and positioning - but also allows players without physical stamina to compete through domination of the tee. It is also an amazing game to watch live - absolutely brilliant, tense and you really appreciate the effort the players go to. On TV though, it is a different matter and it suffers from exactly the same problem that its minority sport companion hockey also suffers. It is too fast, with too small a ball for television. The more appropriate comment here would not be why squash is a minority sport - but a reflection on the disgraceful closure of squash clubs. London has recently seen the closure of Lambs, a gold star facility in London - for office and residential spacing. No attempt to safeguard an amazing facility - as a 10 year old I remember going to see competitions then. There is a story there with squash club operators working out that in the space a squash court takes, you can get a luxury flat, or 5 rowing machines, 5 bike machines and 5 running machines and get 15 people paying for where 2 were previously. One of the most succesful sports for British people in the World and a despicable attitude towards its facilities.
mroli
I understand it from a profit motive - but I cannot understand the attitude of local councils that control planning use and are refusing to safeguard facilities that constantly churn out high performing sportsmen - and ground root support too. There was an alternative proposition, where the members could take over the club and this was barely looked at. Lambs members are still looking for alternatives in the City of London, but one of the things I loved about Lambs was the history. One of the points made against Lambs was that it was used by people out of the area such as City workers and was not really a facility for the community. The irony that it will become flats for buy to rent or weekday inhabitants is not lost on me.
I spent some time in Amsterdam and ended up playing with a number of squash players who had moved to the Netherlands specifically to use the cheaper and better Facilities there. The club that I joined had something like 8 glass backed squash courts and was amazing in comparison to the run down clubs in the UK. Having played on all glass courts, playing on glass backed courts makes a lot of difference in your ability to adapt (and for an audience too! How do you make squash more popular? We've had some great players, there has been some good publicity, but unfortunately, without Olympic coverage, there is no high profile avenue. For Tennis to be an olympic sport and for squash not to be is a disgrace!
racquetdynamics
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.
OliverIrish
racquetdynamics - Yes, good points. Something that I didn't have the space to touch upon in the article is the recent surge of interest in squash in Egypt - the No.1 and 2 men in the world are Egyptian, with two more guys in the top ten. It's a remarkable success story, and one that proves that with the right resources and marketing, anything is possible - and in a very short space of time. But how can squash in the UK expect to compete with bigger, more TV-friendly sports?
TerryHopcroft
London/gbr Motor racing is a classic example of even the most boring passtime getting extensive national coverage with the right promotion.
Squash has its British champions
But it lacks:
1) A Max Clifford type to push it and who understands what sports editors are looking for
2) A controversial champion. Jonah caught the public's imagination not by squash but by his appearances on Superstars. James Willstrop got a bit of publicity a few years ago with a fashion pisture with no shirt on. It is a sad fact of life that if squash is ever to get a press following he needs to follow that up by being photographed coming out of a night club at 3am in the morning on the arm of a B list celeb, or develop a repartie with the marker to match a modern day McEnroe!
muhniepie
It is such a shame that it is only the promotion and business side of squash stopping it from getting the recognition it deserves.
I took up the game a couple of years ago and now have lessons with an ex-pro. I have so much respect for the athleticism and technique involved in playing he game to a higher level. It is a very pure sport. I would agree with other posts that some of the technical aspects and the stop / start refereeing can slow the game down and not be appealing to the general viewer. This is something that other sports (eg Rugby Union also suffer from).
Lets hope that squash can be well marketed and find anew wave of popularity. With the UK in such a strong position in the world rankings it is ripe for the taking.
I would argue the first thing the powers that be need to do is get the game onto terrestrial TV. At the moment the odd game on Sky is all there is. If it was on a Saturday afternoon on the BBC it would attract much more viewers. And lets face it it is much better to watch than horse racing!
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