It was a touch close to 11 am. The morning training session had just ended at the Indian Squash Academy, and the Egyptian coach Achraf El Karargui, with his sweat-wet T-shirt hugging to his body, was just rushing to the breezy comfort of his office room.
The look on his face showed the serious work he had been through, but the smile remained of a content man. “Yes, it was a good session. Full of enthusiasm,” he would say of his 40-odd trainees.
It is almost three months since he took over the reins as coach, after the exit of previous SRFI Consultant Coach Maj S. Maniam of Malaysia. The Egyptian complimented the way his predecessor Cyrus Poncha had laid the base for the training. The structured programme was good and the training schedules had impressed him. “There is no doubt that we have a bunch of highly skilled boys and girls and they should do well,” was his initial surmise on the query on what he felt of the Academy.
The difference between India and Egypt with regard to training was only in the level of competitive games that are brought into the schedules. “We know the young players are talented but how good they can be in reading games, can come only through competitions or challenges,” he said. In Egypt, there are tournaments and a league for all age groups from U-11 to U-23 and then for men and women. The coach continued and said that training goes on one side and the testing comes in the competitions because players get the opportunity to learn the use of the skills.
Since the league goes on for nine months in a year, competitive aspects of training are well taken care of, Achraf said. He accepted it was easier to have this in Egypt because squash is concentrated in two places – Cairo and Alexandria, which is just around 220 km away, but the Egyptian coach believes, in a country like India, it may not be easy to implement it (a league programme) the same way because of the distances between cities where squash is widely played.
But the experienced man has other ideas and proposes to have tournament-like games within training. “I am in discussion with the Cyrus Poncha in this regard,” he said.
For the moment, however, he is excited about the forthcoming junior national championship in Indore. That will be a testing ground for aspiring juniors, besides, it will be the first time he gets an overall assessment of the strength of junior squash in India. “I had always felt that India has a good base of highly talented players and this championship will be exciting for me that way,” he said.
So how has it been to be in India and in Chennai? “No problems. Yes, this weather is very humid. I, at times, need half a dozen T-shirts daily for a training session,” he said smiling. “My wife and I, we like taking long walks in the morning but find it too humid. We tried after dusk and that seemed ok,” he went on. The Egyptian coach had found enough distractions otherwise, to keep their Chennai living comfortable and happy.
Does he miss Egypt? “Yes of course, why not? Egypt is my home. I also miss my three sons, one is working in Germany, the other two are in Cairo, one a student and in hostel,” he said, the smile intact.
“We must meet after the Indore nationals. I am sure there will be many inspiring moments to talk about,” Achraf said as he rose to take leave and prepare for the next session in the evening.
