Quick Updates

Several things happened recently and I will quickly go through it.

1. Squashsite, the most popular squash site for enthusiast to get the latest updates of tournaments and news, ended on the same day Nicol David won her 3rd World title. The 2 people running it, Framboise and Steve Cubbins had to call it quits as they just managed to cover cost of running the site and covering the events on a shoestring budget. On top of that, they had to take leave from work every time they went to cover an event. A long protracted negotiation with PSA (Professional Squash Players Association) did not materialised and thus leaving them no option but to shut down. The closing of the website sparked a worldwide petition from enthusiast and players to save it.

Thanks to James Wilstrop's manager Mick Todd, the website is now up and running again. Kudos and thanks Mick. To Steve and Fram, I am very glad to have you back and running again.

2. PAR (Point A Rally or American) scoring has been made the Official Scoring System of WSF from 1st April 2009 onward worldwide. There has been a lot of arguments and debates on whether the scoring should remain or be switched and finally been decided at the WSF AGM during the World Championships.

Looks like my friend Mr. Ken Goh finally get his wish for Malaysia to switch to PAR scoring. To SRAM, when will you implement it?

3. Ramy Ashour has become only the 2nd person ever after the legendary Jansher Khan to win both the World Junior and then the World Open title. Ashour from Egypt was a 2 time World Junior Champion, made his breakthrough this year disposing the defending champion and countrymate, Amr Shabana in the semifinal. Point to note, Egypt has 3 players in the semis with Karim Darwish who also was another World Junior Champ making the finals against Ashour.

Based on that, the DG of NSC Malaysia has instructed SRAM to look into the Egyptian training module and see if it would be better to send our players there for attachment compared to England. Read my lips SRAM, DECENTRALISE YOUR TRAINING BASE!!!

More on that later. Till then, cheers and happy squashing.