Squash 2020: Do you really care?

If you follow squash, you probably have been inundated with articles, blog posts, email campaigns, and tweets espousing the reasons to include squash in the Olympics, in the year 2020.

I have done my share, through my posts titled “Squash out! Rugby sevens and kite-surfing in” and  “What do squash, roller sports, karate, sports-climbing, wakeboard, and wushu have in common?”

At the end of the day, how much do you care? Are you a squash lover or a fan, or both?

Squash 2020 is a campaign started by players and fans, to mobilize public support for the inclusion of squash in the 2020 Olympics. The primary reason cited for not including squash in the Olympics is that it is not a TV-friendly spectator sport.

The seven sports contending for a spot in the 2020 Olympics are squash, softball/baseball, karate, sports climbing, roller sports, wakeboard, and wushu. In September 2013, the International Olympic Committee will make the final call on which sport gets the nod or not. Ramy Ashour (Egypt), Nick Matthew (UK) and  Gregory Gaultier (France) are the three top-ranked squash players in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) circuit while Nicol David of Malaysia tops the Women’s Squash Association (WSA).

In terms of worldwide popularity and player profiles, Squash has been the odd one out.

Top-ranked tennis players have come from the Western world while players from Asia have been beating out the competition in badminton and table tennis. Squash, on the other hand, has been a different story. One country – Pakistan – dominated the sport for nearly four decades, before Canada’s Jonathan Power and the European players emerged on the scene. Currently, five of the top ten players in the PSA and two of the top ten in WSA hail from Egypt. Sporting powerhouses like the US and China have been conspicuous by their absence in the top echelons of the sport.

Squash’s popularity is certainly on the increase. High-profile tennis celebrity Roger Federer recently came out in the media in support of squash’s bid for Olympic inclusion. When Indian cricketers support Squash 2020, over their Olympic medal-winning sport wrestling, you know squash has arrived! Now all you can do is keep your fingers crossed!

So, do you really care? Please comment and share using the options below.