After bagging bronze medals at the Asian Squash Team Championships in Malaysia, Indian women squash players sound excited about having played for the country after a gap of two years. With the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games coming up in 2022, they say, the focus is towards that and this event helped assess themselves as a team and understand what needs to be worked on. Excerpts from a chat with Joshna Chinappa, Sunayna Kuruvilla, Urwashi Joshi and Aparajitha Balamurukan.
How was it to play for India after a long gap due to the pandemic?
Sunayna: The last team event that I played was the SAF Games in 2019. That was a good one as we won a gold in the team event. Also, I won a silver in the individuals. So, going into this event, all of us were really excited because we were going to play a team event after so long.
Joshna: This was the first event in more than two years, wearing the India jersey. But I’ve been playing PSA tournaments all around the world since October last year. But playing for India has always been something that I would look forward to since my junior days.
As players, what have been the challenges since the start of the pandemic and what keeps you going?
Joshna: One challenge was not really knowing when I would play next. This year, I was away from home for almost four months. It was living out of a suitcase. I couldn’t come back to India. Because India was in lockdown and travellers from India were not allowed in other countries. So, to play tournaments, I had to stay away for four months from home. The expenses also shot up. Because you would be paying for a lot of stuff on your own. I was shuttling between Egypt, America and England. It was fun in a way, but the uncertainty of which tournament I would play next, when I would go home next made things difficult.
Sunayna: I think I’ve played four events this whole year. That’s disappointing. Usually, I play in about 10-12 events a year. So, it was really difficult to stay motivated; to continue training with that same drive. I would try to remind myself that the reason why I did it was because I enjoyed playing.
Urwashi: It has been challenging to stay motivated, but taking one day at a time has been helpful. Also, setting up short-term goals and focusing on achieving them directs my attention towards them rather than thinking about what’s happening around.
Joshna: I’m looking forward to playing at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in 2022 and that is helping me stay focused. I have a great team I work with. My coach Hadrian Stiff, in England, has been very supportive. While in Chennai, I train at …….
