Disheartening to see state of Indian squash: Dipika Pallikal

India's leading squash player Dipika Pallikal on Friday slammed the national federation SRFI for failing to appoint a coach since April 2018 and said that the state of the sport in the country is "disheartening".

The Indian players have been training without a full-time foreign coach ever since Egyptian Achraf Karargui left on a bitter note ahead of the Commonwealth Games in April last year.

"If you want to try and take squash forward in the country, the first rule is to have a coach. It's just bizarre to head to the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games without a coach. It's just disheartening to see what is happening to Indian squash," Dipika told PTI on the sidelines of the launch of the Adidas VRCT jacket.

The first Indian to break into the top 10, Dipika, said the Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI) needs to have a structure in place for Indians to become a formidable force at the world level.

"There has to be a proper structured program, scheduling etc in place. To try and become world champions a lot of planning has to be done. It's not the best scenario in the country right now without a coach."
"After that make them play a lot of tournaments to get exposure then send them out internationally. After that send them outside India to train. All of us have done the same. So these are just some of the basic rules all of us have followed."
"That person may have nothing to do with your game. The connect won't be there which is very important. The player need someone fulltime. I don't how it will work out but personally, it won't work for me."