 | |
| Sport | Squash |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | SRFI |
| Regional affiliation | Asian Squash Federation |
| Location | Chennai |
| President | Debendranath Sarangi |
| Secretary | K.Rajendiran |
| Coach | Cyrus Poncha |
| Official website | |
| www | |
 | |
The Squash Rackets Federation of India or SRFI is the Indian governmental apex body for the game of squash. It conducts the National Squash Championship, and promotes the game through the state level squash bodies, and provides training facilities and selects the squad for the Indian team. It also chooses coaches for the national team (presently Cyrus Poncha and Major S. Maniam).
Among the major facilities created by the SRFI is the Indian Squash Academy,[1] which hosted the World Team Championship in 2007.[2]
Conflict between the SRFI and squash athletes came to a fore in 2005, when the government was conferring the Dronacharya Award on SRFI affiliated squash coach Cyrus Poncha. India's number one squash player Joshna Chinappa wrote a letter to the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs that she never trained under Poncha, and that he had misused her name to get the Dronacharya Award.[3] The SRFI chairman Ramachandran then produced testimonials from Joshna where she acknowledges the support of SRFI and Poncha.
In 2008, the SRFI chose a woman's squad for the Asian championships without Dipika Pallikal, who was then training in Egypt, after having recently won the under-17 British Junior Open. The federation cited irregularities in the paperwork in informing the group about her absence due to training,[4] but it was felt that this might have been a rivalry with the Mittal Champions Trust which had been sponsoring her training abroad.
The SRFI maintains the website, [1] which announces the national squash calendar and other details.[5]
SRFI manages two squads that represent India in international squash: the India men's national squash team, the India women's national squash team.
- ^ Cyrus Poncha blog
- ^ "SRFI- WMT 2007 - Press release". Archived from the original on 20 November 2007. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
- ^ Shobha Warrier (3 September 2005). "SRFI rally behind Poncha".
- ^ Sambuddha Dutt (5 February 2008). "Justice eludes squash player Dipika Pallikal". NDTV.
- ^ "Squash Rackets Federation of India". www.indiasquash.com. Retrieved 23 May 2020.