Beckford WHEN IT comes to regional competition, squash is one of Jamaica's most successful sports.
Although it has been around for over 40 years, however, it remains a minor sport in Jamaica.
In a One-on-One interview Douglas Beckford, president of the Jamaica Squash Association for the past 24 years and former president of the Caribbean Squash Association, says one reason for its low rating here is perception and another is the lack of funding.
QUESTION: Where do you see squash in the overall picture of Jamaica's sports?
DOUGLAS BECKFORD: Well, you just have to look at the results in regional competitions and you will see that squash is right there with the best.
Q: So why it is still considered a minor sport?
DB: Squash has what I would call two strikes against it. One is that it is not an Olympic sport, and by that I don't mean that Jamaica has a world-class player or that I see Jamaica has a world class competitor in squash.
In the whole picture of funding, coaching, accessibility to coaching, if you are not an Olympic sport you're are behind the eight-ball, and although squash has made great strides as a sport, although we are now in the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games, the Central American Games, the Asian Games, until we can get the sport into the Olympics there will be a problem with funding, and once there is a problem with funding there will be a problem with coaching.
The second strike is one of perception. As long as I have been involved there has been the perception that squash is a sport that does not need help, that it should be able to fund itself, and that is not true.
Q: What is the perception, is it that in Jamaica squash is played by expatriates and that it is a sport for the upper class?
DB: That may well be it. In fact, although it is not necessarily so, that is it. In the early years of squash in Jamaica there was really the impression that squash was played by foreigners, by expatriates, and the upper class, but I believe that that was the case with most if not all sports - including cricket.
Squash, being a newer sport, perhaps has not had the opportunity to change that image, but even if it was seen as that, a lot of our players have come out of the army, and if you look at the Jamaica team now, it has a wide cross section of players. There are professionals, businessmen, teachers, the unemployed, and schoolboys and schoolgirls. The sport has changed in the last 20 years.
Q: That is fine, but which schools are now playing squash.
DB: We have always had a problem getting into the schools and as a result we don't really have a school programme. That is really because of the accessibility to courts. We have made many attempts to get some courts so that we can spread the game, so that we can use them to encourage the schools.
ACCESSIBILITY IS A PROBLEM
As you would know, there has been a move to get a court at Melbourne Cricket Club, we have tried to get one at Kingston Cricket Club, at one point we tried to get one at the National Stadium, but so far nothing has happened. We now have one court at the University of Technology and two at the University of the West Indies, and although that is the step in the right direction, accessibility is still a problem.
Q: What about participation and representation as far as Jamaicans are concerned?
DB: Right now we have an active junior programme, it is played at Liguanea Club, and once you are in the programme you can come in and play. There are some 35 to 50 youngsters involved in the programme every term. You don't have to be a member of the club.
Q: In terms of performance, where is Jamaica's squash in the region and in the Commonwealth?
DB: Commonwealth squash is almost the same as world squash because the big teams - Pakistan, Malaysia, Canada, England, Australia - are all Commonwealth teams, so in the Commonwealth, which is an individual tournament, we are not that impressive. In the Pan American Games, however, we are more competitive. Squash has been played in the last two Pan Am Games, the women have qualified both times and the men in 1999. The women came sixth in 1999 and fifth in 2003, that means we are in the big six and in the last CAC Games we won a silver medal and two bronze medals.
In the Caribbean Championships, however, we have won 11 of the 14 overall team titles and a number of individual titles.
We also have played in the Rose Bowl, it is a team of 20 players, and although, again because of funding, we have not been able to send a full team on some occasions, we have done well. We have won it some 22 or 23 times.
Q: Does that mean that sometimes the players have to pay their way?
DB: Yes, very much so. Over the years we are most times self-funded. We have some loyal and consistent sponsors and we have had minimal contributions from the Sports Development Foundation and the Carreras Sports Foundation but generally the players, with the help of the association, have to go out and find sponsorship.
Q: What is the present state of the game in Jamaica?
DB: There is a lot of action. I don't think there is a month that we don't have a tournament. We have three Open tournaments every year, four junior tournaments, a doubles tournament and four handicaps tournaments that encourage greater participation.
DREAM
Q: What is the dream of squash?
DB: It is to play in the Olympic Games. That would make us eligible, for example, for assistance through the Olympic Solidarity programme. It would make us high profile and the Jamaica Olympic Association would then have to help us. Coaching is what we need most and that would really help us to get a good coach - one who could coach our players and coach our part-time coaches.
What we must remember, however, is that squash is not played in the Olympic Games, so for us to play in the Olympic Games, the first thing to do is to get squash in the Olympic Games.
Q: When is that likely to happen?
DB: I really don't know. All I can tell you is that we have been trying. We have made a lot of submissions to them, we have proposed a format of 32 men and 32 women in a singles competition that will not make the Games any longer. The international association has told the International Olympic Committee that it is prepared to build the squash facility at the Games, and we have told them that the teams would pay their way. That means there would be no extra cost but so far the IOC has not budged.
The truth is that we are really trying to build the game here, we are opening it up, but I am afraid that until squash is in the Olympic Games, not much more will happen. To play, to participate in the Olympic Games is every youngster's dream, we need to be in the Games so that more youngsters will be attracted to the game.
People are willing to sponsor a sport that is in the Games and until that happens, until squash is played at the Olympic Games, it is difficult to move squash forward.
- Tony Becca
