December 22, 2016, Greater Noida, India: HCL, a leading global conglomerate, today announced the launch of HCL Junior Squash Championship – a four star National Junior Circuit, to be hosted from December 24 – 28, 2016 at the Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida. The Championship which is HCL’s first ever initiative to promote Squash offers a serious platform to young upcoming players in the country. 30 percent of the total 268 players who have registered for the Championship include top national rank holders from each category. The total prize purse for winners across all categories is Rs. 5,00,000/-.

HCL Junior Squash Championship 2016

The HCL Junior Squash Championship is one of the highest level tournaments in the country and is being organised under the aegis of The Squash Racket Federation of India and the Uttar Pradesh Squash Rackets Association to promote the sport at a competitive level. The Squash Racket Federation of India manages the profiles and ranking of the players and has been promoting squash in India and abroad.

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The Championship will be a knock-out format followed by play-offs of the top 8 positions in all categories. The top players will receive ranking points and will be included in the National Junior ranking list in the relevant age group. It will be open to both, boys and girls in separate categories and has been further sub-categorized into the Under-11 (Boys & Girls), Under-13 (Boys & Girls), Under-15 (Boys & Girls), Under-17 (Boys & Girls) and Under-19 (Boys) categories.

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Speaking on the initiative, Sundar Mahalingam, Chief Strategy Officer, HCL Corporation said, “Promoting sports is an integral part of HCL’s brand philosophy which aims at touching people’s lives. As part of our initiatives, we are happy to launch the first edition of HCL Junior Squash Championship which will aim to provide an opportunity to the players to hone and develop their skills in a competitive environment.”

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Cyrus Poncha, Chairman SRFI National Circuit and National Coach, Squash Rackets Federation of India said, “We are very pleased to be associated with The HCL Junior Squash Championship and see this as a further testimony to the bright future of the sport in the country. We look forward to working closely with HCL to promote the game in the country and provide more opportunities to young and talented future stars of Squash. The sport is played in almost 175 countries and we are hopeful that squash will one day be a household name similar to cricket and tennis.”

Tags: Cyrus Poncha, Greater Noida, HCL, HCL Junior Squash Championship, National Junior Circuit, Shiv Nadar University, Sport, Sports