Indonesia's squash to go worldwide?

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.