Robert Lau
KUCHING: Sarawak is in need of good facilities to train and groom talented players to become world champions.
Squash Racket Association of Sarawak chairman, Robert Lau lamented the association do not have a squash training centre of its own and had to rely those which are privately owned.
“Take for example the four courts at The Sarawak Club that we have been using to train our young players and organise competitions over the last 15 years,” he told the Borneo Post recently.
In Kuching, there are courts at Sarawak Golf Club and at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in Kota Samarahan but not opened to public.
Lau was pleased to note the good working relationship with Sarawak Club which enabled the association to train state and national players over the years.
Sarawak home grown squash champions include Mohd Azlan Iskandar, the late Audrey Smith, Rachel Goh, Daphne Ting, June Tiong, Wong Kim Lee and Joan Jee.
State’s upcoming young players like Michelle Wong, Mindy Lee, Affeeq Abedeen Ismail and Sanjay Singh Chal are now with the national side.
Lau who is also Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia Sarawak Branch chairman, expressed hope for the federal and state governments to consider the association’s wish to have a squash centre soon.
“We applied for a piece of land at Sarawak Stadium two years ago but it was given to another sports body so we submitted the second application for another piece of land, which is about a size of an acre at Kota Sentosa,” he said.
“We are still waiting for the approval of the land application from the state government…we understand that the Ministry of Youth and Sports has the funds for the construction of the centre and once we get the nod from the state government, we shall proceed with the construction,” said Lau.
He said this was the best time to build a centre as Sarawak would be hosting Sukma 2016 which is less four years away.
“It is better to build it now rather than later,” Lau said on the proposed international standard centre which is expected to cost RM7-8 million to build.
“The centre shall have a minimum of 10 courts and one glass court to enable us to host international competitions,” he said on the centre which will enable the association to host future national and international championships here which will in turn help to promote sports tourism in Sarawak.
“In Malaysia, we only hold international events in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia is well known for squash because we have world number player Nicol David,” he added.
Lau, who served as the team manager of the national team to the 19th Asian Junior Squash Championships in Kish Island, Iran in June, said he was very impressed with the squash facilities there.
“We can see how they set up the centre on the island that has a small population of 40,000 and it is now well known because they are holding many competitions there.”
Lau said another option for the association was to get Kuching City South Council to open up the two courts at MBKS Recreational Centre in Pending.
“The place was quite isolated over the years but now the area is opened up with the completion of a new traffic junction, so I think it would be an ideal place to have a centre there,” he said.