Indonesia's squash to go worldwide?

Musthofid The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Ask someone about squash. The probability of him or her knowing about the sport can be very small. Unlike tennis, take as a comparative example, squash has yet to reach, say, the level of regencies. Even people in the provinces' do not all know about the sport.

Although squash is believed to be first introduced in Indonesia as early as in the 1940s, tournaments had not been organized until in the 1980. And activities in squash became formally organized only after 1993 when PSI, the national squash association, was established.

"We are still very young. And little can be done in the space of just eight years," Johanes Karsan, PSI's executive director, told The Jakarta Post here on Saturday on the sidelines of the ongoing Bastaman & Partners Open Squash Championship.

Still fledgling, PSI has office branches in only 13 out of 32 provinces through Indonesia.

In an attempt to promote the sport nationwide, PSI admits to being impeded by the image that squash is an elite sport that is exclusively enjoyed in hotels.

Squash centers are still scarce and taking it up as routine exercises for a certain segment of social class would cost a lot of money.

Being not yet popular, squash development has been subsequently slackened by the fact that business entities give only a few interest in sponsorship.

Players have yet to be provided with cash assurance from playing squash. Though, they said they were confident about the prospect.

"I'm still doubtful that people will play squash at the moment for a living. But I'm sure about the next future, provided that PSI is serious in handling the business," Nuryanto, the Indonesia's number one player, said.

PSI seems to do it all out in its efforts as the government does not seem to take interest, either.

"It's a different case when we talk about neighbors Malaysia. With full sport from the government by building quite many centers, squash has reached the world level and is no compare to Indonesia," Bambang Gatot Subroto, a PSI's chief in charge of development, said.

With all the defects, which must be a daunting task to work out, PSI dreams of cracking on the world.

"We are vying for the world championship," Karsan said, his voice turned down but with emphasis.

"We might need ten years," he said when asked about the period they would require to realize the dream.

"We posses potentials. Look, squash is in nature not impeded by physical buildup of the players. In basketball, don't ever dream of challenging the Dream Team, because we have physical defects that basketball does not tolerate," he said.

"We just need to train agility, speed and toughness. And that can be polished through scores of high-standard tournaments," he said.

PSI looks to be striving to tackle with those obstacles and try to equip itself with a thoroughly-worked plan to send prospectful athletes abroad through parentship program as well as lure sponsorship for tournaments.

"PSI looks struggling in promoting squash. We lend it a helping hand by giving an the players an opportunity to train their skills," Syarif Bastaman, from lawyer company Bastaman & Partners, said.

PSI plans six tournaments in 2002. Despite being far from an ideal number, it will be an improvement from four tournaments this year.