‘Low priority in country helped me concentrate’

It did not matter that former world squash No 1 Nicol wasn’t playing tennis, football or cricket

Not being a Henman, Beckham or Vaughan in England certainly helped. And former World No 1 Peter Nicol admits that he made the most of the absence of pressure while scaling the summit in squash. In town on invitation from the city-based World Squash Academy (WSA), Nicol — the first Britisher to hold the No 1 ranking, brought with him some hope for a nation with little history and lesser priority for the racket sport.

“I never let the low profile stress me out — I had to go out and win. It helped that squash was never a priority sport in England. I was single-minded about achieving my goals, and managed them all,” Nicol said of his rise in the game at the turn of the century.

“I can relate to Indians since I came from a place with no history in squash — northeast Scotland. Everything was new when I travelled to London and it proves that anyone from anywhere can become a world champion,” the now-retired 34-year-old said of his strictly amateurish beginnings in Inverurie.

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The left-handed Nicol was feted with the MBE after the triple-delight of 1998 when he clinched squash’s equivalent of Wimbledon — the British Open, the Commonwealth gold and the No 1 spot. “But, all that I remember of 1998 is the loss to arch rival Jonathan Power at the World Open. You learn more from defeats,” he says.

At WSA as its co-founder and head coach, Nicol — the winner of 49 professional titles in a career highlighted by 12 straight years in the Top 10 — was at his inventive best while conducting drills for the first batch of youngsters.

For someone who trained extensively on a gym-bike, warmed up for his return to the No 1 spot with a charity-trek in the Himalayas and watched scores of movies as a pre-game relaxation technique, squash coaching goes well beyond the game’s four walls. Adam Gilchrist’s squash-ball-in-glove experiment at cricket’s World Cup would’ve hardly surprised him, considering Nicol’s own multi-disciplinary past.

“I played football, cricket, golf and tennis as a kid and took up squash only at 15. Playing different sports is vital because you learn much more about opponents, psychology and physical movements. Like striking the ball in golf which is quite a stationary sport. But every time I stepped onto the court, I knew I had a little more than my opponents,” he says, also underlining the scope for inter-sport innovation.

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Nicol trained under Neil Harvey — also Ritwik Bhattacharya’s coach — and sees a bright future for India if an exhaustive junior programme is put in place. Dimmer though, Nicol stresses, has been the growth of the sport in general.

“It’s not getting as much recognition as it deserves,” he says, adding that even his rise to prominence in England would go down as an opportunity wasted, since squash didn’t take off as he would have expected. “I was too busy maintaining my ranking, and couldn’t focus on promoting the sport, but the onus is also on the administrators.”

Tipping current World No 3 Ramy Ashour as the player who would take squash to newer heights, Nicol believes the teen sensation has it in him to capture popular imagination.

“Besides being an exceptional athlete, he has the personality to take squash many notches higher,” he says.

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After the departure of the legendary Jansher Khan — Peter Nicol added the final touches to the Pakistani’s farewell in 98—squash thrived on the Nicol-Jonathan Power rivalry. “Ramy needs someone to come through and challenge him,” he says, adding how “every yin needs a yang.”

Nicol is not likely to find that balancing power in India, but he is optimistic that the WSA venture might some day unearth one.

“World Champions have come from strange places, you know,” he ends.