Not a popular sport the world over it was first played with softball around 1817
at Harrow. There was no recognised tournament till the early 20th Century. In India, the
first national championship was held in 1953 with Rajkumar Narpat Singh emerging as the
champion. He went on to perform a hattrick by retaining the title for the next two years.
Anil Nayar, who won the junior and the senior titles in the same year in 1964 at the age
of 18 won the United States Amateur squash championships three times in?a?row from 1965 to
1967. In 1964, he won the Drysdale Cup, considered unofficially as the World Junior Crown.
R.K. Manchanda, who represented India in eight international tournaments from 1976 to
1984, was the skipper of t team that finished second in the Asian Squash championships
Karachi in 1981.
Firoze Pandole, his son Dinshaw and Dinshaw's sons Dari and Farokh form the three
generations of the same family in the history of Indian squash.
After Anil Nayar, Adrian Ezra became the second player to win the senior and the junior
national titles in the same year in 1989 at the age of 17. |