Ramachandran re-elected WSF president

World Squash Federation president N Ramachandran of India has been unanimously re-elected to a fresh two-year term at the WSF annual general meeting held in Chennai on Friday.

Besides Ramachandran, the AGM also elected three vice presidents — Chris Stahl of England and Heather Deayton of Hong Kong (both re-elected) and Mohd Al Menshawy of Egypt, who defeated Gerad Decousy of New Zealand.

Including Ramachandran and the three veeps, the WSF top management has Andrew Shelly as CEO and George Mieras as secretary-general.

The WSF AGM also amended the constitution as per the IOC Rules making the term of office of president as two four-year terms and that of the vice presidents to four two-year terms.

The AGM saw representation from 45 countries, which included two days of conference and discussions to find ways to develop the sport, improve its profile in the media and also to make it an acceptable discipline in the Olympic Games.

Ramachandran, said the two key focus areas for the sport was to make it more TV friendly and to push for its entry into the 2020 Games as an Olympic discipline.

As part of efforts to improve fan connect, the $ 125,000 Squash World Cup, which Chennai is hosting from 8 to 12 March next year, will be held at the South Indian metropolis’s Express Shopping Mall to increase awareness of squash among the public and to bring in TV revenue too.