Squash team confident of putting up a better display

Chris DHAMBARAGE

SQUASH: The Sri Lanka squash team is confident of putting up an improved performance at the 10th edition of the South Asian Games squash championships which will be worked off at the newly constructed Gymkhana Club squash courts in Maitland Crescent from August 18 to 25.

In fact this will be the first time that squash will be played at the new squash courts of the Gymkhana Club which has been redeveloped and upgraded to international standard.

The biggest advantage for Sri Lanka will be the services of two of their most experienced players Navin Samarasinghe and Saman Tillekeratne who have had a series of training sessions overseas.

The former is fresh after training in Australia under the guidance of Roger Flynn a World ranked squash coach while the latter has been training in France for the last couple of years.

Both Samarasinghe and Tillekeratne will carry Sri Lanka's hopes with the back up support coming from the rest of the players namely Anura Hewage and Eranga Alwis. The Sri Lanka women's team will comprise of Nirasha Guruge, Tehani Guruge, Vidushi Gurunada and Kushani Daluwatte.

The Sri Lanka men's and the women's team were selected following a series of trials by the national selectors comprising of Navin Piyatissa, Tony Direcksz, Malaka Talwatte and Sanjeev Vairawanathan.

The Sri Lanka squash team will go into the South Asian Games with a lot of international experience behind them having performed extremely well at the recent Asian senior squash championships in Chinese Taipei, Commonwealth Games in Australia, Penang Junior championships, Malaysian junior open tournament and the Asian junior individual championships.

The Sri Lanka squash team will also have the services of another reputed coach Jamshed Gul Khan from Pakistan who was a World number fourteen during his playing days.

He will be assisted by the national coach Mrs. Yasmin Zarook. R.S. Deen assistant coach and Rohan Perera chairman Coaching and Development.

Zarook said that the women's team seem to have a better chance of winning a silver medal with the toughest challenge coming from India. She hoped that the Sri Lankan players will use the home advantage and the conditions to good affect during this tournament.

This will also be the first major international squash tournament to be worked off in Sri Lanka and only the second time the game will be conducted at the South Asian Games. Sri Lanka bagged two bronze medals at the previous South Asian Games which were held in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2004.