SquashTalk>Columns>Team Kneipp > World Teams Vienna - A Short History

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 The 19th World Championships starts on Sunday in Vienna. It will be
contested by Australia, England, France, Egypt, Canada, Scotland, Wales,
Malaysia, Pakistan, Ireland, South Africa, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden,
Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Austria, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Czech
Republic, USA, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bermuda, Kuwait and
Korea.

Pakistan Dominated the World Championships in Previous Decades (© 2003, SquashTalk archives)

The biennial event has come a long way from its humble beginning in 1967
when six teams - Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, South Africa, India
and Pakistan - played a three-man team event in Melbourne. Australia as
hosts won the first event, and since then only four other countries have
taken the title – Australia (7 times), Pakistan (6), England (2), Great
Britain (2) and Egypt (1).

Throughout the 70s the number of teams participating varied between 5 and
14. The venue was usually either within a strong squash nation, or an exotic
city. Birmingham, Palmerston NZ, Johannesburg, Toronto and Brisbane all held
the event in the 70s with Australia, Great Britain and Pakistan sharing the spoils. The World Individual Championships used to be held at the same time as the World Teams and 1979 saw the emergence of Jahangir Khan and the beginning of an era. As a 15 year old Jahangir won the World Individual title, but for some unknown, ridiculous reason he wasn’t included in Pakistan’s squad for the team event. Britain went on to beat Pakistan 2 – 1 in the final, so obviously leaving out the best player on the planet wasn’t such a brilliant tactic.

Throughout the 80s more and more countries participated in the event with teams from Zimbabwe, Singapore, Nigeria, West Germany, Japan and Monaco joining in.

In 1981 Zimbabwe, Singapore and Nigeria performed better than both France and the Netherlands, two countries that have since become very strong squash nations.

Stockholm, Auckland, Cairo and London all hosted the event in the 80s and each time Pakistan won. New Zealand, Australia, England and Egypt all shared the minor placings over the decade, sportingly varying the order. Sweden came an impressive 6th in ‘81 as the host nation, but showed in ’79 and ’83 that it wasn’t a result inspired by a home crowd as they placed 6th three tournaments in a row.

The 80s looked like it were going to be a total Pakistan whitewash until
1989 in Singapore when Australia was able to win the trophy back. It was the
same year that non-Commonwealth countries showed the strength and
participation that squash was beginning to have worldwide. Finland came 6th,
Sweden 7th, West Germany 10th, France 12th, Netherlands 13th and Spain 14th.
Kuwait, Italy, PNG and Japan all participated.

The 90s saw the event hosted by Helsinki, Karachi, Cairo twice and Petaling
Jay in Malaysia. Australia, Pakistan and England shared the top prize, with
Egypt finally taking the winner’s dais for the first time, as tournament
hosts - but on their second attempt.

The event was held in Melbourne again for the new millennium, and again the
home team took the title.

This year in Vienna there are six new countries that have never before
contested the World Men’s Team Championships. They are the Czech Republic,
Bermuda, Hungary, Korea, Russia and Slovenia. Over the 37-year history of
the event 48 different countries have been on court as a team. 30 will take
part this year, which means that there are 16 teams that have at some stage
taken part in the competition, but for different reasons aren’t involved
this year (West Germany and Great Britain are the reason these figures don’t
add up). The missing teams are:

Argentina
Belgium
Brazil
Denmark
Greece
India
Kenya
Monaco
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
PNG
Portugal
Singapore
Spain
Zimbabwe

Most of these countries are squash minnows, with the exceptions of Belgium,
Denmark and Spain. Belgium has produced a homegrown top-ten player, has a
strong league, a vibrant squash community and is the base for the current
world champion. Yet the country has only participated a miserly once in the
World Teams. Considering that they nearly border the host country and could
drive to the event, it is disappointing they don’t have a team involved this
year.

Denmark, or Team Korsberg as it should be called, have attended this
tournament 8 times in total but have given 2003 a miss. At the 2001 event
they came16th, ahead of New Zealand and the States. The two strongest
players in Denmark are Mikkel and Mads Korsbjerg. With Mikkel’s ranking a
respectable 56, they could have posed the threat of an upset.

But the most disappointing absentee is Spain. The country is currently
experiencing its best squash success and there’s a strong push within the
country to get more tournaments and better players. They had a four star
tournament in June that attracted the likes of Nicol and Ricketts, and they
just had a WISPA event that was won by a local girl. Their top male, the new
whizzkid on the block Borja Golan is ranked 43, and they would be able to
field a team of four including a reserve with all players ranked above 120.
That is better than Scotland, Finland, South Africa, Germany, Hong Kong, New
Zealand, Sweden, Austria, Japan, Mexico and the States.

Borja Golan was a glaring absentee at December’s World Open. Not because he
wasn’t good enough, or didn’t have a space in the draw, but because there
was a muddle up with his entry, which was apparently supposed to be the
responsibility of the federation (although it always comes down to the pro
making sure of the entry – you only make this mistake once). It wouldn’t
surprise me if Spain’s absenteeism was due to an administrative error.

With the tournament about to start, it now doesn’t matter which countries
are missing. What’s important is that there is a tournament that has 30
horses racing, 5 genuine contenders and between two and four dark horses
capable of making a last minute gallop down the straight. Preview coming
soon.

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