Nick’s the shooting star in squash

M. Nickhileswar with his father Moganasundharam and mother Shanti Mary Palvinder Kaur at the Penang Open Squash Championship on Wednesday.

HE is just 14 and will only turn 15 on July 14. Being a lad growing up in Penang, he loves his char koay teow and ice cream, along with McDonalds fried chicken.

But if you think M. Nickhileswar will be gorging himself in the island food paradise, you would be wrong.

He hardly touches the stuff. Instead, the youngster has his diet controlled by his nutritionist Miss Loo. Nickhileswar is a lad with grand plans.

He wants to turn pro as a squash player and represent Malaysia at the SEA Games before he turns 19. And even at 14, Nickhileswar is giving the Under-19 boys a run for their money, beating most of them.

He is now already looking forward to the day when he can turn pro.

The Penang lad, who broke into the limelight when he won the British Junior Open title in 2019 when he was just 11, is already on his way there.

But first, he is headed to the World Junior Championships at the Melbourne Sports Centre between July 18 and 29, as the youngest of six Malaysian players selected for the Under-19 meet.

Last month, at the selection trials for the World Junior Championships, he beat older lads like Hashvind Kugan and Aidan Yunus to qualify for the Melbourne meet along with Joachim Chuah, Harith Danial Jefri and Lo Wa Sern, who qualified automatically because of their rankings. Joachim is 18 years old, Harith is 17 and Lo 16.

At the last British Open junior meet, Nickhileswar was also the only Malaysian to make it into the semi-finals of the boys’ Under-15, losing to top-seeded Egyptian Seif Refaay.

At home, although he is still aged below 15, the Malaysian has skipped both the Under-15 and Under-17 categories in the National Junior Circuit and is instead taking part in the Under-19 tournament. In the first leg in Penang, he finished second behind 18-year-old Zack Tay Jun Qian.

Nickhileswar, a Form 3 student at SM Hamid Khan in Penang, now trains under coach Aaron Soyza at the Nicol David International Squash Centre in Bukit Dumbar in Penang. He spends 16 hours a week in training, with four days having morning and evening sessions and five days with evening sessions.

He has special sparring sessions with some top players like 20-year-old Ishant Shah, a former national player, whenever he comes home from his studies in Harvard, and former Asian Games silver medallist and world No. 5 Low Wee Wern, who is also based at the Nicol David Centre.

With sparring partners like that, he has every reason to aim high. The plan, says his father Moganasundharam, is to see him into the next Sukma Games in Kuala Lumpur and then into the national team for the 2027 SEA Games which Malaysia will host. He would be just 19 then.

By then, he would be ready to leave home. For now, though, he remains a shy youngster who prefers to stay close to his parents. That is among the reasons why he has refused to move to the Bukit Jalil Sports School where most top players are based.

Of course, he still has a top-class coach in Aaron Soyza in Penang.

His parents, in fact, have moved him from their house on the mainland to his grandmother’s home in Taman Tun Sardon on the island because it’s close to both his school and the Nicol David Centre in Bukit Dumbar.

While Moganasundharam and his wife Shanti Mary Palvinder Kaur stay in Simpang Ampat in the mainland, grandma Cecilia Rosalind has turned chauffeur, driving him to school and to training while also ensuring he sticks by his diet.

The one problem is, he cannot get into the Pelapis squad – the side being groomed to take over in the national team – as long as he stays in Penang. Only those based in Bukit Jalil are usually picked to the squad, which comes with added benefits.

“It would be nice if he could get into the Pelapis squad,” said Moganasundharam. “We hope he can get into the side although he is in Penang.’’

He felt decentralised training should be encouraged instead of the current focus on centralised training.

Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia’s Major (rtd) S. Maniam also sees a bright future for the young lad, even if his base is in Penang.

“He is a talented, dedicated and passionate player,” said the director of coaching. Nickhileswar’s growth, he said, showed that parental support was very important in sports, especially for the younger players.

He also said it did not matter if he was based in Penang, as long as he had good coaching and support.

“At this stage, it does not matter. As he gets better and older, he will need higher-level sparring partners, to match his growth. Then, it would be better if he does his training at the national centre.”

Maniam, however, said he did not expect Nickhileswar to make waves any time soon.

“This year, he will have some great exposure during the World Junior Championships.”

In Melbourne, the boys will only play in the individual tournament while the girls will have both individual and team tournaments.

“Next year, I believe Nickhileswar will be an integral part of the team, as the boys will play in both the team and individual tournaments,” he said.

‘‘From then on, I expect that he will be in the national training squad and I expect to see him there among the big boys in the next few years,” declared Maniam.