"We are taking some steps to improve the quality" - Associate Vice President Rajat Chandolia on HCL's contribution to the development of Squash
HCL Enterprise was the sponsor of the Squash World Cup 2023, which was held in Chennai during the month of June. They played a key role in making the event a huge success.
Sportskeeda caught up with Rajat Chandolia, the Associate Vice President, Branding and Marketing Strategy of HCL Enterprise to speak about their contribution to the sport. He also spoke about their future plans and contributions to other sports.
Q) The Squash World Cup is returning to India after a very long time. So what are your thoughts on that?
Rajat Chandolia: Of course, it's a great thing for India and in general also. For Indian squash, I think the important part is that we are seeing a lot of good players now. Abhay is there, and Tanvi is there. So I think this World Cup gives them a good opportunity to play with the best. And the World Cup is of course the pinnacle.
So it's good that WSF has got back the World Cup. Apart from PSA organizing these World Squash Championship, this is like the biggest event. So it's good for Indian squash, it's good for squash in general.
Q) Sadly India couldn't make it to the finals. What do you make out of the performance of the Indians? How much have they improved over the last few months or so?
Rajat Chandolia: So again, we can't talk about Saurav and Joshna. They are anyways the old horses. They are still at their best. But with Abhay and Tanvi and of course, there are other people also like Anahat. There are a lot of good players coming in. Winning and losing are part of the game but I think the Malaysians played very well also. Their under-19 person is giving Saurav and Joshna a solid matchup. There is good talent everywhere. So that's the positive part.
Q) So like HCL is sponsoring this event. What potential do you see for the growth of this event and the lesser-known sports in India?
Rajat Chandolia: So we have been supporting squash for a very long time now. 7 years now. Every year we are taking some steps to improve the quality of squash. So we support the sport in general but not individuals. So going forward there may be some opportunity of sponsoring not individuals but a group of individuals.
So we are working on that. There is a grassroots program that we are working on and many others like that. We of course do another 2-3 now. We do bridge, which is a card game. It's a mind sport.
We also have started doing cycling, which is in the form of a cyclothon. You have these big marathons. Now we are taking up cycling as a sport ourselves. We have done it in Delhi. We are now doing it in Chennai in October. So there is a lot of money in mainline sports.
Through our support to these leased sports what we are trying to do is build a platform so that other sponsors can come in. So it's not as if we will keep on sponsoring, we will keep on pumping money. Our idea is to give a platform to those sports.
Q) As you said you have many future plans to invest in multiple different aspects. So what is your long-term vision?
Rajat Chandolia: It's purely the development of the sport along with the federations, like-minded federations in that sense. Whether it's about players, coaches, referees, or spectators.
So all in all we want to do those kinds of programs that will help the player from a 360 perspective and also make the sport popular. So that's what we are trying to do and that's a long-term strategy in that sense.
Q) Would you like the sport to get recognition for the Olympics? Would that be an ultimate development for the sport?
Rajat Chandolia: See, I can't comment on that because the Olympics is something that has been decided by IOC. That's the job of the federation. But I'm sure there are parameters to assess it, making it viewable.
I think that's also viewable, more people watching it. So I think we have done it through Jio Cinema, PSA TV does that. So somewhere down the line, I think squash will be in the Olympics as well.
Q) Do you think sports like cricket are actually killing these smaller sports which are yet to grow?
Rajat Chandolia: I don't think so. Cricket also started the journey 30-40 years back. It was mostly about talent. We had some good, talented players and that's how the thing was. But now the situation has completely changed with IPL and all of that.
So we are still, I would say, 10 years there. Still 20 years more and I think we will get to cricket in that sense. So I'm not just talking about squash, I'm talking about every other sport.
So in fact, a lot of our sports where we are good at are mostly individual sports. Like we support Olympic Gold Quest also. That's more CSR. But all the individual sports, whether it's archery, badminton, table tennis, we support those sports also where India is good at.
And I don't think people are, or rather cricket is killing the other sport. Cricket in fact is also supporting other sports.
Q) So fans turned out in huge numbers over the last few days. What do you make of it? Do you think that they have started gaining interest in the sport?
Rajat Chandolia: Yes, of course! And it's the world cup. So people want to see India. People want to see India perform. And the good part is that it's been set up in a central location, in a mall. You have spectators here, you have spectators everywhere. So I think that's what other countries also do. That's how they do it.
Q) I'm pretty sure that many might have seen squash for the first time. So is there a good exhibition for the game?
Rajat Chandolia: Yes, it is. That's how you make sports popular. We put it on ODT, we put it on this thing. But live viewing is a different experience altogether. Badminton also, I'm not sure about this thing, but they do it in stadiums.
There's the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi. I think the PBL happens over there. So there is the Siri Fort complex. So in that also if you see, a lot of people come in. So you have to make the sport accessible to the masses. And that's how we do it.