Showcasing unity in sports

We are the champions!: Malaysian squash players and officials celebrate after winning the gold medal in the women’s team final during the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

With squash included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angles, hopefully the sport which boasts multiracial representation will deliver the medals.

IT’S been a busy few months for squash in Negri Sembilan.

After many years (encompassing five Ministers of Youth and Sports, two Mentris Besar of Negri Sembilan and Covid-19) the renovations of our squash centre in Seremban 2 were finally completed mid-year.

Originally comprising three courts within the Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Mohd Said Sports Complex, it now has eight glass-backed courts (four of which can be converted into two doubles courts) and one full glass arena court.

This significant upgrade means better opportunities for training and tournaments, and the Tuanku Muhriz Trophy was held there in August.

Aly Hussein of Egypt won the men’s trophy, while our Sivangari Subramaniam won the women’s trophy – her first after suffering a car crash last June that dashed her hopes of competing in (and being the flag bearer for) the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

Those finals also saw the launch of the new facility by the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan Tuanku Muhriz – the Royal Patron of both the state and national squash associations (PSNS and SRAM) – with the Seremban Quartet providing live entertainment from inside the court

Since the success of that tournament, other associations have been keen to host tournaments there too. As I mentioned during my launch speech, such activity is good for the local economy, especially hotels, restaurants and transportation providers.

I argued furthermore that it is squash, rather than badminton or football, that should be regarded as our true national sport, because it has been and continues to be multiracial.

If previously we had Nicol David, Ong Beng Hee and Azlan Iskandar; today we have Sivasangari Subramaniam, Ng Eain Yow and the Azman sisters – and the same diversity of names exists among the next generation of players too.

At that event, we could not have predicted that squash would finally become an Olympic sport with its inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics (10 years ago I wrote an article hoping for its inclusion in 2020)!

Indeed, had squash been an Olympic sport previously, Malaysia would have already bagged several gold medals, but we must look forward to the future and naturally there has been a huge level of excitement among the squash fraternity.

This was only augmented by the Malaysian team’s outstanding success at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, where we won three golds (men’s singles, women’s singles and women’s team), a silver (mixed doubles) and a bronze (men’s team). The Royal Patron was pleased to host the medallists for tea at Istana Hinggap Seremban, and the next day many of these players participated in the ACE Malaysia Cup, a PSA Bronze level event with significant prize money and ranking points, attracting players seeking to achieve (or reacquire) world number one status.

Thus, to no one’s surprise, Egyptians won the titles, but our Rachel Arnold was our proud women’s runner up.

Outside the sports complex the organisers had placed the national flags of the players’ countries.

“Is that a Palestinian flag?,” one excited attendee asked. It was in fact a Kuwaiti flag, but the question of course triggered a conversation about the geopolitics of sport.

In 2021, the men’s World Team Championship due to be held in Malaysia was cancelled because of fears that the government would not issue visas for the Israeli team. In fact, I faced a similar potential issue during the Tuanku Muhriz Trophy, but was grateful to the Minister of Youth and Sport for helping me to resolve the issue.

Though there have been exceptions before, it’s unlikely that the general policy will change, especially with Israel’s current assault on Gaza. Still, sports associations will say that there is a cost to Malaysian athletes: they may have been training hard for years, yet be denied the opportunity of competing in prestigious international tournaments in their own country just because an Israeli wants to compete.

A similar cost-benefit analysis comes with the ongoing boycotts of several international brands that have emptied hitherto busy locations. This has been described as a triumph of consumer power, but franchisees and employees say that this action is hurting Malaysians too.

At least in the field of squash (where Muslims have long dominated the top ranks), Egypt, Pakistan and Malaysia have triumphed over Israel.

Now that it is an Olympic sport, squash will become even more important in showcasing our multiracial success, but if the squash centre in Gaza survives the genocide, perhaps that’s where solidarity with Palestinians can also continue in a meaningful way.

Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin is President of Persatuan Squash Negri Sembilan (PSNS) and Committee Member of the Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM). The views expressed here are the writer’s own.