| QA
Challenge EN BREF ... Issue SIX Everything you didn't know you needed to know about the QA Challenge from Steve Cubbins in Hyderabad |
Aiming for the Top The
Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) is 50 years old, and this
week in Hyderabad represents another step along the way to the
declared intent of General Secretary N Ramachandran to produce
a world champion.Mr Ramachandran has been in the post since 1997, and is also serving his second term as President of the Asian Squash Federation. A player himself, "of club standard", until 18 months ago, he first explained how the Qatar Airways Challenge came to be in Hyderabad. "WISPA approached the SRFI to see if we would be interested in holding a major event, and of course we were delighted to have the opportunity. We agreed that we would handle all the organisation and funding for the event, apart from the prize money, bringing in co-sponsors to make the event viable.  "The
court was brought in from our ICL Academy in Chennai, the first time
it has been out of the city, and of course ASB fitted the glass floor
which has gone down very well with all the players."We're delighted with the event, the coverage it has received in all the National press, and live TV coverage from the quarters on. There aren't many places you could get a solid four hours of prime time TV coverage for squash, as we did for the quarters. "We'd be delighted to host it again, and happy to do any event with WISPA who are a pleasure to work with, especially Andrew Shelley."
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 Wireless Magic The Falaknuma Palace can be safely described as being "in the middle of nowhere". Perched atop a 200-foot hill it offers spectacular views of the city, especially at night. We don't get many passers-by as you would in, say, a shopping mall since you have to make an effort to get here, but for those who do it's well worth the effort. But despite its location we're wonderfully well equipped. There's a bank of computers set up at the back of the seating for journalists, players, organisers to use, and with wireless broadband to boot we can update the scoreboard, reports, photos etc from anywhere in the arena. It's lovely to be looked after, so well done Manan and the SRFI, you've done us proud. |
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It's in the Glass You all know by now that the court here is using an all-glass floor developed by ASB which has gone down very well with the players. Mister ASB himself, Horst Babinsky is here to see how it's going and he's naturally delighted with the reaction.
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 Time for Tea At many venues the 'refreshment tent' consists of coolers packed with branded fizzy and soft drinks. Here at the Falaknuma Palace there's no need for a tent, obviously, and we're treated to delicious Indian tea, served in the finest china by the wonderfully pleasant and courteous Taj Hotel staff. Mmmmmmm .... |
| QA Challenge EN BREF ... Issue FIVE |
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An
Afternoon Out to the Charminar Alex goes out and about ... I wanted to learn more about India. So, it was a choice between the civilised new city of Hyderabad where there are air conditioned malls or the rough conditions of the Falaknuma town. I chose the latter, as we have similar malls back home. It was also Friday afternoon, where Muslims come out to worship Allah in the mosque, equivalent to Sunday mornings for Christians.  Getting
into a mini taxi with referee Munir Shah, it was a good 12 kilometre
ride through the rough and busy streets, evading automobile after
automobile. Once there, we were greeted by countless number of locals. Of course, the sheer size of my camera did not help
deter any attention from the Urdu speaking locals. Falaknuma is one of
the Muslim-strong areas of India and you will find many Arabs who have
married locals here.Right in the heart of the town is the Charminar, where “char” means four and “minar” means minaret. The structure sits in the middle of the road and acts as a roundabout to auto traffic, so you can imagine what we can do for Milton Keynes if we ever get bored of plain old roundabouts. It has very delicate Muslim architecture and looks over the Mecca Masjid (mosque). The atmosphere here was out of the world. It was very bazaar like, many push carts selling local delicacies, fruits, clothing and accessories. The saddest part for me was that many of these vendors were kids, all of whom were amused by my camera, not surprisingly of course. In the mosque, thousands of Muslims dutifully went to pray. Though not an encouraged practise in the religion, begging was everywhere inside, this was a matter of survival for many. As I was coming back to my hotel, I realised that it is these little trips round the world that makes one appreciate how lucky we are to live in the environment where life is much easier....  |
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| QA Challenge EN BREF ... Issue FOUR |
Frozen in Time On Thursday several of the players and referees went on an escorted
trip to the Falaknumah Palace, where the glass court has been erected.After an hour's coach ride through the crowded Hyderabad streets we arrived at the top of the hill on which the palace is situated, and what an impressive building and setting it is. I'll let the photos do the talking (lots more in the gallery)   Mr Prabaker from Taj Hotels, who have signed a deal to open part of
the palace as a hotel in a couple of years' time, took us around the
inside - it's not open to the public - which was pretty much as it was
when the palace was last lived in in 1911. It was as if we'd discovered a long-lost treasure, frozen in time with no-one to tend to it over the years, preserved but with some signs of neglect. And what a treasure it was. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, and the scale, splendour and beauty of the place surpass my ability to describe them in words, so instead I'll give you a few facts and figures which tell the story. The name means "Heavenly-made" ... It took ten years to build, 1883-1893, and 21 years to decorate ... It was built by the prime minister, who when he invited the King around made the mistake of saying "I built it for you" ... the King had 100 palaces and 150-175 wives, and in this palace they had 2,000 servants. The whole place is decorated in 24-carat gold, anything that looks like gold ... is. There are six types of chandeliers and most rooms have several, many suspended from a 50-foot high roof ... The ceiling fans are made of cut glass, suspension and blades, and every ceiling is exquisitely decorated. You get upstairs via an unsupported, three flight marble staircase, with each stair a 10-foot wide single piece of Italian marble. The Jade Parlour alone has $30 million of artefacts in it ... the library 6,000 books ... the master bedroom a 75-door wardrobe ... the baths hot, cold and perfume taps. But the thing that took us all aback was the dining room. It can seat 100 people. On one table. 50 on each side. It took me 55 paces to go from top to bottom. Unbelievable. So, sorry we can't show you the inside, but maybe when the hotel opens and the interior is renovated and opened as a museum you can come and see. It's worth the trip ...
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At
your Service What lovely people our Indian hosts are. In the hotel, at the Club, in the Shops, on the streets, everyone is so helpful and friendly, they just can't do enough to help and make our stay a pleasant one. Here's two of the doorman at the hotel, who have managed to get to the doors before the guests arrive every time so far ...  |
No Shorts
Please
 The Secunderabad Club is a place full of history, even if the squash
complex is brand new. Many of the buildings date from the imperial age, and so do many of the customs .... I went for lunch with Mr WISPA (that's Andrew Shelley for the uninitiated), and we were about to sit down in the restaurant when a waiter came across saying "No, no, in the basement," and pointing at my legs. Well, personally I didn't think they were that bad, but apparently it's the showing of them that's not allowed (collarless shirts are a no-no too). So, off to the basement it was, but the food was still delicious ... |
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It's my ball "Ball please," said the
referee to Natalie Grinham when she was last
off court in the first round.Natalie was having none of it. Three gold medals yes, but you can never have enough balls in your bag, can you. "It's ok, I'll just keep this one for practice," she said, walking nonchalantly off and leaving the open-mouthed referee's hand grasping empty air. Natalie was on earlier in the second round, and do you know what .... she got the ball again! But remember kids, it's your duty to give the ball back to the marker after the match. Here's the deal - when you win three Commonwealth Golds you too get to keep the ball ... |
| QA Challenge EN BREF ... Issue THREE |
In
the Papers  The
Indian press are certainly going to town on the event. There's reporters, photographers, TV crews everywhere, with players being whisked off on a virtual conveyor belt for interviews with the various media present. Here's a few examples of coverage from the first two days ... |
 Five minutes I thought I'd take a five minute stroll down the road from the Hotel to get a glimpse of Hyderabad ... you certainly get to see some sights! The plan for tomorrow is a taxi ride with the video running ... scary ...
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What's in a name? Ever wondered what the story was behind Indian city names such as Calcutta/Kolkata, or Bombay/Mumbai? I thought it might be that we Westerners maybe had a different name for the cities, but no it's much simpler than that. Apparently it's a common thing here to just change the names of cities, so in 1994 Bombay officially became Mumbai, in '97 Madras became Chennai, in 2001 Calcutta became Kolkata, and later this year Bangalore will become Bengaluru ... although it seems that most inhabitants of the cities concerned continue to call them by their old names. Hyderabad has always been Hyderabad, with no current plans to change. |
| QA Challenge EN BREF ... Issue TWO |
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A
New Club with History I had a chat with Rajiv Reddy of the SRFI, an International Referee who is also helping organise the tournament, about the Secunderabad Club where qualifying and early rounds are taking place.  "The
club was established in 1867, and it now has Cricket, swimming pools,
eight tennis courts, beach volleyball, basketball, table tennis, bars
and restaurants. It's a members club with around 4,000 members and
around 100-150 regular squash players."The club contacted the SRFI last year to see if we could help them to renovate their two squash courts which were built 60/70 years ago. "The existing building was levelled, and they set about building a new facility with three glass-back courts, and badminton courts too. The Qatar Airways Challenge came up during the rebuilding, so it was a great opportunity to have a new facility for the tournament. "The refurbishment too eight and a half months to complete and everybody's really looking forward to it hosting this tournament.
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 Smoke Ahoy ... Sitting next to Video Vic in the press room we noticed a funny smell
... nothing to do with our neighbours, it was a smell of burning!With seven computers, several laptops, photocopier, printer, and assorted main and backup power supplies (the electricity had already gone off four times this morning), tracking down the culprit wasn't easy. But, after a few minutes the problem was found - an overhead fluorescent light. Problem solved and we were back online well before the qualifying matches. |
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Carla Made It! One of today's qualifiers is Carla Khan, who recently retained her Pakistan National title in Islamabad. She returned home to London before coming out to Hyderabad, but it took some doing ... Representing Pakistan "I go over to Pakistan quite a lot now, playing tournaments and training there. The Federation give me some help, and I get quite a lot of support when I play, especially being part of the Khan family. I'm getting quite famous! "They concentrate more on developing the boys, but the girls are coming on, they held a WISPA tournament last year, so there's resources being put into developing the women's game which is good. "I would love to represent Pakistan at some of the major games. I remember in 2002 when I found out the day before that I couldn't play in the Commonwealth Games, I was gutted for ages, really. "But there's the Asian Games coming up and they're trying to help me represent the country in that, and other games, which would be just fantastic. Coming to Hyderabad "When I knew I was coming to Hyderabad, because I have dual nationality I thought it would be easy to get a visa using my British passport, but the Indian authorities insisted on treating me as a Pakistan citizen which made it much harder. "It took weeks to get the visa sorted, I once spent ten hours at the visa office, and in the end it only just came through in time. "I couldn't fly direct to Hyderabad, Pakistanis have to enter through specific cities, so I had a mad panic sorting out flights to Mumbai and then here. Then, when I arrived at the hotel they told me I had to report to the police to let them know I was here! "I'm just back playing after six months of sickness and injury. It was a nightmare getting here, but now I'm here I'm really looking forward to it!" |
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| QA Challenge EN BREF ... Issue ONE |
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Hyderabad here we come Steve Cubbins from Doha Airport It's definitely good news having an airline as one of your major sponsors. For this, the third Qatar Airways Challenge, the venue has moved from Doha to Hyderabad but Qatar Airways are instrumental in allowing WISPA to bring the world's top women's players for one of the richest events of the year in what is usually considered the 'off-season'. But an event of this stature deserves proper coverage, and with QA sponsorship allowing SquashSite to be on the spot in Hyderabad we'll be doing our best, as ever. I don't normally do previews, but as it turns out I'm sitting here in Doha airport with a few hours to kill, so thought a scene-setter would be in order. A Looong Journey Getting to Hyderabad is going to be a long process. The 10.55 flight from Heathrow this morning was just too early for me to get the first flight down from Newcastle to be safe, so I came down on Saturday evening. To catch the last flight from Newcastle meant I had to leave the house at 18.15, so that was radio 5 live for the last moments of extra time and the penalty shoot-out. As it turned out I could have watched it because on arrival at the airport the flight turned out to be delayed for two hours. On second thoughts, maybe I did better not to watch ... Anyway, I finally arrived at Heathrow at midnight, waited 45 minutes for a taxi to take the 2 mile, £15, ride to the hotel. Then this morning waited 33 minutes for the 'every 15 minutes' shuttle to Heathrow. Mmmm. Still, the flight to Doha left on time, and arrived a few minutes early. "We're just about to land at Doha," said the captain, "where the temperature is 37 degrees celsius." 37 degrees at 8pm??? Blimey. Anyway, only four and a half hours to wait for the onward leg to Hyderabad. Doha airport isn't that big, and there's lots of people just milling around waiting for flights, ready to pounce on a spare seat should it become available. I'm not moving just yet! You should be so Lucky Still, spare a thought for poor Alex Wan, who will be covering the event with me. He departed Kuala Lumpur at 00.30 and faced an 18-hour stopover in Doha. As noted before, the airport's not that big, but I haven't found him yet - he's no doubt asleep in a corner somewhere. "Why don't you text him," I hear you say. Well, in one of those wonderful technological quirks, I can't get a mobile signal here - I have a dual band and a quad band phone with me - but there does seem to be a free wireless internet connection. Not sure if I'm supposed to be using it, so I'd better be quick! Anyway, we'll be in Hyderabad in the morning and the action starts at the Secunderabad Club on the 4th, moving to the all-glass court for the quarters on. Don't miss it ... |
 
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 QA
Challenge 2005 EN BREF Everything you didn't know you needed to know about the 2005 QA Challenge, from Framboise in Doha ... |