Joshna8217;s exclusion shocking

Chinappa, who will become 13 later this year, made a tremendous impact in the international circuit with a title win in Scottish Junior Open and entering semi-final grade in the British Open after helping India to win an Asian Junior Bronze in Kuala Lumpur. She capped it with a stellar show of winning the under-16 Malaysian Championship. The tiny lass surpised her senior partners who are now scheduled to play in Belgium. Instead of giving her all the encouragement that is required for a raw talent, N Ramchandran, secretary of the Squash Rackets Federation of India SRFI sent her a show cause notice alleging that her parents had tried to undermine SRFI authority by attempting to send direct entry for some open tournaments. SRFI had to make a hasty withdrawal of the notice after a challenging letter from player8217;s mother Sunitha Chinappa.

What has hurt the young Joshna more is the double standard of SRFI who has permitted Rhea Bhandare to play in Belgium despite being in America during the camp period. She was also not officially intimated about the camp. SRFI has failed to give Joshna justice for reasons best known to them going by the action taken by Indian coach Rajiv Reddy during a tournament in Kuala Lumpur.

Joshna8217;s entry was sent for under-16 but on being informed by the organisers at the last moment that she can also play in her orignial group of under-13, she made an on the spot entry. SRFI had not informed Joshna about this facility but instead of giving her chance to achieve the double, Reddy forced her to withdraw the under-13 entry.

Joshna8217;s parents were very bitter over this issue and they protested to SRFI but now they feel that SRFI has been vindictive and left their daughter out and have included players who have lost to her in internationl competition.

Sunitha8217;s argument is that it is easy for SRFI to stamp out needless authority but beyond that it is of no help. It is finally left to parents to get all details about the event, the entry forms, age classifications, payment of entry fees, get draws and accomodation for their young wards directly from the international associations through their own expenditure vis-a-vis e-mail, fax, phone and web-sites, she points out and added that since SRFI fails to provide all the significant information, it is inevitable that parents or players have to deal directly with the hosts.