SQUASH AUSTRALIA STILL BLOWING HOT AIR

Those folks down under who run Australian squash must really think the rest of the world is as dumb/naïve (hoose favourite word) as they are. They mis-treated Carol Owens when she was at the top, and so she refused to play for them and went off to New Zealand and finally took out citizenship there.

Natalie Grinham - will play for Holland. (photo:©2008 Alex Wan)

Then they fiddled the selection process  for their women’s teams which upset the Grinham sisters. It seems the selection process was carefully laid down except for one clause that allowed the selectors to  ignore all the rules if  they thought fit and select another player who was not good enough. The Grinham sisters insisted that the rules be changed to avoid any sort of favoritism. Although Squash Austalia promised changes, they were never made, so the Grinham sisters refused to play for Australia in the world team championships. Squash Australia issued a press release that was pitiful in its attempt to put positive spin on a nasty situation. They blah –blahed about giving young players a chance, without mentioning the Grinham boycott. It cost Australia a world team title. They still had not changed two years later; it cost them another world team title. And now that Natalie Grinham has taken up Dutch nationality – to match that of her husband Tommy Berden,  Squash Australia issues another press release  wishing Natalie good luck, blah,blah,bleedin’ blah.  No mention of the boycott and how Squash Australia’s administrators had screwed up.

Anyway I thought Natalie should have made the change a couple of years ago. She will be eligible to play for the Netherlands from next year, so with  Vanessa Atkinson and  Annelize Naude, the Dutch should have a pretty good chance at the title. Australia? They will come fourth or fifth. But in my heart Squash Australia will always be first in bullshit.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK IT’S A HELLUVA ---WAIT A MINUTE! WAIT A MINUTE!

I am glad to report that the New York media has finally noticed that a great sporting event is taking place annually in Grand Central Terminal. It has only taken ten years for the New York Times to mention the great Tournament of Champion, which John Nimick has been promoting so vigorously since the mid-nineties. For most years – and I have covered the event for every year but one – the august  New York Times never even ran results, never mind reporting on it. And this was the Big Apple where new things were exalted. Finally this year they noticed. There were even colour pics, and actual features in several New York  papers. As I said, it only took a decade to sink in.

TERRIFIC TORONTO

Amr Shabana entertained in Toronto. (photo:©2008 Debra Tessier)

Meanwhile let us give Toronto’s newspapers a huge cheer, they really covered the Canadian Classic this year, huge features as well as solid  match coverage. The National Post had a feature on Amr Shabana that took the breath away. The reporter, bravely, almost ignored squash and got Amr talking about the fundamentalist terrorists. The quotes were full of  “ F***” s as Amr let fly at these **********s who went around with   “a bomb up their butt” and fumed at the fact that all these terrorist activities had made it even harder for the players from the Middle Eastern countries  to get US visas. Great article and well said Amr. The result was that  for the four days in the John Bassett theatre  there were near sell-out crowds.

Congratulations to the Toronto sports editors who could teach the stuck-in-the-past New York journos  how to move into the 21st century and that there ismore to sport than basketball, baseball, gridiron and ice hockey.

PLAYER CUP SERIES COULD BE THE WAY FORWARD

Nimick’s Players’ Cup series could be the way forward for pro squash. This year, its first, has gone smoothly. With an overall sponsor next year, it could grow to become a truly major circuit.  In addition to  David Palmer moving to Boston and John White in Pennsylvania, I now learn that Wael El \ Hindi is due to move to New York very shortly. There will be more top players moving to the Eastern Seaboard in the next year, which will mean a great potential field of top players for US tournaments in the coming years.  The Richmond event, the Davenport Pro Squash tournament, attracted the best field so far this year with eight out of the top ten  in the main draw and tournament director Gus Cooke, with the constant help of Dave Carr of McWil Courtwall, has put together a great tournament.

The only set-back has been in Boston for the playoffs where advance ticket sales were down, so Nimick has cancelled the Hancock Theatre in the Backbay area and the whole tournament will be played at Harvard which has a permanent 4-wall glass court. But the players are anxious because of the pay day. First round losers in the eight man draw earn $3,000, semi-finalist get $4,000, runner up gets $5,000 and the winner gets $25,000, which should make the final really interesting.

RAMY OVERWORKED

Strangely Ramy Ashour who tops the rankings, will not be going to Boston. He told me he has to save his body. In the last 20 days he has played the Canadian Classic Toronto, did two exhibition in Western Canada with Amr Shabana and then played in an eight man invitational in Barrie, a small town north of Toronto. No wonder he’s tired. And probably getting around $6,000 for an exhibition,  he can afford to turn down a chance of $25,000

PRIVATE JETS FOR THE STARS

Despite the cutback, six of the players who will be participating in the playoffs in Boston will be flown by private jet from Richmond, Virgina to Boston on Sunday, to avoid the harrowing experience of flying commercial airlines. Good for them, they deserve it.

BEACHILL  ELECTED TO PSA BOARD –HERRICK NOT THROWN OVERBOARD

Although Beachill was told in Bermuda that he did not get enough votes to be elected to the board, well blow me down if a month later, the PSA suddenly found the missing votes  and Beachill was put on the board after all. Jack Herrick was taken off the presidential perch but still remains a board member. I met up with Beachill and Alex Gough in Richmond and asked what happened. They both smiled and kept shtum.  But that silence spoke volumes. As I said in my news story on Squashtalk two weeks ago, I think Gawain Briars brokered a deal before  the entire membership mutinied.  While we are on the subject of Briars,  my Deep  Split Throat source tells me that two years ago 160 PSA members signed a  non-confidence motion against Briars. Somehow Briars survived that too.

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