Easy group for Bots in squash World Champs

THATO KALA
Correspondent | Friday June 7, 2013 00:00

The prestigious tournament, which serves as the world team championship for squash players, kicks off in Mulhouse, France, on Sunday. Botswana Squash Racket Association (BSRA) president, Tiego Rabasha is happy with the Group E seeding and believes the team can progress beyond the preliminary stages.

'The teams in our group are not really powerhouses and we have a chance to make it through to the next round,'Rabasha told Mmegi Sport. Perhaps the strongest of the teams in Group E are the Kiwis who have twice finished runners-up in 23 outings. Malaysia also have much experience after featuring in the World Squash team open 15 times. Their best finish was fifth in Chennai, India, in 2007. They have also won the Asian Squash Team Championship.

Rabasha added their participation was more in search for exposure for future engagements.This will be their second competitive squash tournament this year after they sent a team to the Africa Squash Championships in February this year. 'It's not really about results this time, it's about the exposure and experience. We want to see how far we can go,' he said.

World number 15 squash star, Alister Walker carries Botswana's hopes at the championship.The United States-based star will be buoyed by his HKFC title triumph in Hong Kong last weekend.Walker is the reigning African champion after winning the Africa Championships held in Windhoek, Namibia, earlier this year.

Another US-based player, Lekgotla Mosope, will also represent the country together with Under-19 number one, Theo Pelonomi.Rabasha explained: 'The whole idea of taking Pelonomi with us is to expose him to the game at this level. The youngster has shown a lot of potential and we have identified him as one of our future squash stars so we believe this will be important for him.'

Conrad Ntshebe has been drafted into the squad as a reserve player.Ntshebe, Rabasha and Pelonomi leave for France tomorrow.Ntshebe and Pelonomi also travelled with the team to Namibia.Rabasha believes the tournament also presents him, as an administrator, a platform to learn mew things.