A doctor who took to squash by chance has today nursed several talented players

Dr. Bharatinder Singh

It is amazing how circumstances can influence a player's career. Take the instance of Dr. Bharatinder Singh, a sports medicine expert, who has served in the Indian medical team in Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth Games and was a key official in the Fortis and Max Health Care chain of hospitals once.

Dr. Singh is a content man whose present love is coaching young talents in squash, for two reasons – to help them develop competitive spirit even as they go up in standards, and to ensure they channel their energy into useful ends. And for all this Dr. Singh would never have been anywhere near squash if not for a chance prompting by a Major in the army!

Right from a young age, Dr. Singh, now 64 and fit as a fiddle, had interest in sports and games. “In my young days in school and college, I used to excel in athletics. Long jump was a craze for me and I longed to take part in competitions,” he recalled wistfully. Being good at studies was an advantage for Dr. Singh, whose passion for sports was a touch worrying for his parents.

He went on to say, “I had a dream to become an Olympic champion in long jump. I must have been 18 then and I needed to improve by over 2 feet to be anywhere near the existing record. I had four years’ time. But I was serious.”

That was the time he happened to see, by chance, the life of an achiever in athletics, Gurdial Singh (a former Asian 3000m steeplechase champion) – someone who lived in a less than moderate life setting as a Railway ticket collector. “Would you wish to end up like that or would you study and be a doctor?” was the question his father posed to him.

Life changed there but not his passion for sports. Young Bharatinder pursued his studies diligently and went on to become a doctor but fitness being his obsession, a sports medicine line garnered his interest. Squash was never in the domain of thinking, let alone indulgence, until while serving in the Army somewhere in the Rajouri area along the Kashmir border a Major prompted him to play after handing him a racquet!

Not having touched a racquet till then let alone played the game, Dr. Singh was reluctant. But when insisted upon he agreed and what is more, beat the Major! “I realised then that fitness and athleticism are the premise on which all sporting disciplines grow. My agility helped me that day against the Major. But that incident drew me closer to squash,” he said.

Hard training followed after which there were division tournaments, zonals and finally an entry into the then strong Services team, which had the likes of Raj Manchanda, an illustrious national champion multiple times. Dr. Singh's journey to squash heights was steady. He was 28 or so when he was initiated into the sport, and so playing in the seniors at the national level became his interest. 12 national titles and second place in the Asian over 45-years championship were his memorable feats.

But most of all what endears him to squash players is his readiness to help and tutor them. He has 60 kids who get trained by his team (seven coaches under him) in Delhi Siri Fort complex. Of the lot, 35 are from an NGO which manages abandoned children; he helped give them a new direction in life through squash.

Even in this line of coaching Dr. Singh was not without an episode. “With an eye on helping orphans I had started by taking six kids from Balak Salam, a well-known orphanage in Delhi, and gave them free coaching and also ensured a healthy diet. Now these were all boys, and a women's organisation questioned what they felt was my anti-female attitude! I struggled to convince them that my intentions were noble, not male chauvnism!” he said with a chuckle.

That has passed and all is well now, with Dr. Singh's goal being simple: help the young ones who have the talent to get stronger through squash. An articulate person, Dr. Singh described why he thought squash is the toughest sport; tougher than even rowing. “You need to have the shoulders of a boxer, a strong heart for endurance, the legs of a long jumper, the agility of a footballer, the flexibility of a gymnast and the mind of a chess player – all rolled into one,” he said while advocating the value of learning squash, a game that is today catching up thick and fast in the country.

Dr. Singh said the facilities have improved, and an academy like the one in Chennai would do wonders for squash players in the country. He sees a bright future for this sport and more champions sprouting in India.

For now though, he is happy that the base for the sport is broadening in Delhi. School programmes concentrate even on government schools to scout for talent, and according to Dr. Singh it may not be long before the capital becomes a key talent centre for squash.