NAIROBI, Kenya, April 9 – The upcoming Mara Squash League will provide local players with the chance to improve their skills by competing alongside their international peers.
Organiser of the tournament, Chandresh Sagar, said the international players will provide the much-needed world class challenge that local stars have been craving for many years.
“Basically, the players at the top level in the country haven’t been exposed to the international circuit as much as they have to be exposed and it was becoming a barrier to understand what level they have to reach. We wanted the international players to come here and be a part of these teams,” Sagar said.
He added: “A team consists of six players out of which only two are going to be foreign players while the rest are Kenyans. What happens is that the local players get to understand which game these international players are playing and encourages them to gradually bring their game to a higher level.”
The three-day tournament – set for April 19-21 at Braeburn School Gitanga Road – will comprise eight teams of six players each out of which two (male and female) will be international.
The teams include Kenya Orient Life Mavericks, Royal Nicks, Braeburn Stars, Tuskers on The T’, Court Conquerors, Apex Alpha Apes, Lightning Strokes and the Supernicks.
The foreign countries represented include India, Uganda, Nigeria, Zambia, and Sri Lanka.
Among the foreign legion include top-ranked Nigeria’s Samuel Kehinde, India’s Rahul Bhatia and Sunita Patel, among others.
Sagar said the long-term plan is to attract the crème-de-la-crème of squash as the tournament continues to grow.
“We are calling on the top players to come and participate in this tournament. Going forward, our target is to get the top 20 players in the world playing in this league. This league is going to happen every six months and so by the end of the fourth or fifth season, we would have to love the top 20 players participating in this tournament,” he said.
Moreover, the tournament will double up as a carnival where would-be squash players will learn more about the sport as they partake in other entertainment activities.
“We would have done this tournament as a basic squash tournament and not as a carnival. The whole idea of making it a carnival is so friends and family can come and support the tournament. We are looking at one parent coming to the tournament and saying they want to enroll their kids for squash,” Sagar explained.
The inaugural edition will be preceded by an auction at the Braeburn School, Gitanga Road where each team will have a kitty of Ksh 100,000 to bid for the players of their choice to form a formidable side.
There will be five different categories where players can bag bonuses for each game won.
Players in the first category will win Ksh 10,000 for each game won, Ksh 8,000 for second category players and Ksh 3,000 for third category players.
The winner in the fourth category and fifth categories will receive KES 3,000 and KES 1,000 respectively.
Additionally, owners of the winning team will clinch a trip to Portugal for three days and four nights — courtesy of title sponsor Casa Capital.
