HOW EGYPT RISES AGAIN
Their players dominate world’s top 10 in men and women
FIVE years ago, a Malaysian side, powered by Nicol David, knocked out Egypt in the women’s World Team semi-finals in Niagara-onthe-Lake in Canada. The other members of the Malaysian team were Low Wee Wern and Delia Arnold. Representing the Egyptian team then were Raneem El Welily, Nour El Sherbini and Omeya Abdel Kawy.
Since then the young Cleopatras have grown in strength and today, Egypt have four women in the world’s top 10. They are Raneem (World No 1), Nour Sherbini (World No 2), Nour El Tayeb (World No 4) and Nouran Gohar (World No 8).
As Malaysia’s Nicol David bowed out in the third round of the World Championships in Chicago yesterday (after losing 11-9, 4-11, 4-11, 5-11) to France’s Camille Serme), Egypt’s Raneem, Nour Sherbini, Nour Tayeb and Nouran charged into the quarter-finals.
Two Malaysian women had already fallen to the might of the Egyptians in the first round. Wee Wern lost to Nadine Shahin 711, 4-11, 8-11 while Rachel Arnold fell 2-11, 611, 6-11 to Nour Tayeb.
It’s not just the “princesses” of Egypt that are dominating world squash, so are their “princes.”
Egypt boasts of a remarkable six men in the world’s top 10. They are World No 1 Mohamed Elshorbagy, World No 2 Ali Farag, World No 3 Tarek Momen, World No 5 Karim Abdel Gawad, World No 8 Marwan Elshorbagy and World No 9 Mohamed Abouelghar.
Malaysia would do well to study the Egyptian way to rise again in the postNicol David era, apart from the retirement of former World top 10 players like Ong Beng Hee and Azlan Iskandar.
Half of both the men's and women's quarterfinals in the ongoing World Championships are made up of Egyptians.
Egyptian squash is so established that they won four World Team Championship women's titles. As for their men, Egypt also captured four titles.
Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) director of coaching Mejar (rtd) S. Maniam feels that Egypt's early success in the sport had sparked a strong squash culture in the country.
“For a start (of what makes them so powerful), Egypt has a very strong history and playing culture when it comes to squash,” said Maniam.
“Egypt has produced world class squash players from the beginning and also has many top class coaches. That was carried on through the years though there was a gap for some years due to internal strife.
“But they came back with a vengeance after that and have been stronger than ever before.
“Hosni Mubarak was himself a great fan and proponent of squash, so there was and still is a lot of support and funding from their government.
“They had this great player named Ahmed Barada who did really well and started the squash revolution in Egypt. Following in his footsteps was a whole group of young players.
“Parents were clamouring to get their children into the sport in the hope of getting government support and becoming famous like Barada. They believed they could do it.”
Maniam added that Egypt, over the years, has developed a strong network of squash centres and a substantial pool of quality coaches.
“To give you a perspective, Bukit Jalil is the centre for squash in Malaysia. All our top coaches and players are based there. There are at least a dozen centres such as Bukit Jalil in Egypt.
“Each centre has six to eight world class coaches. By comparison, I have five coaches at Bukit Jalil at the moment.
“Many of them (Egyptian squash centres) are funded by clubs. Parents pay a lot of money to have their children train under coaches and join programmes.
“Many of their players, who have competed at the highest level, are also giving back by being coaches.
“Hundreds and hundreds of children play because they see their friends doing well in the British Junior Open and doing well at world level. They have a 'if they can do it, so can I' attitude.”
Maniam stressed that Malaysia is capable of following in Egypt's footsteps if a number of fundamental weaknesses can be addressed.
“We, too, have good numbers at the junior level. If you look around the world and look to name a second (best) country which has a good development programme after Egypt, I would not hesitate to put Malaysia right up there alongside Hong Kong and India.
“At the British Junior Open last year, we won four out of the 10 titles on offer. The obstacle for us is making the transition from junior to the elite level and there is a number of reasons this is happening.”
Maniam made it clear that local coaches need to be shown the recognition they deserve in order to further develop the sport.
“I am hoping to raise the level of quality coaches we have through various education initiatives.
“One of the problems we have always had is that local coaches are not recognised at the same level as foreign coaches. We get coaches from abroad who are equal in coaching qualifications but we pay them big bucks.
“For example, if you bring in a foreign coach, you (government) pay him RM30,000 while a local coach gets only RM7,000. I'm sorry but this is a fact of life.
“So where is the incentive to become a coach when they do not get the recognition? If you want to promote coaching education, which is an integral part of developing the sport, then something needs to be done.
“Many years ago I said that you must equate coaches’ education with academic education. For example a level 1 qualified coach is considered equal to a STPM, a level 2 coach with a diploma, a level 3 coach to a degree and so on.
“Then, pay them according to that. They are specialists, they do so much work but are not recognised, therefore people are not bothered to coach. They only do it for passion.
“Our coaches are treated poorly, that is sum and substance.”