| The first organised squash Competition was held in 1939 at the Malay
College in the Royal town of Kuala Kangsar. Two great leaders of this
country were featured in the finals of that event where the former King
of Malaysia His Royal Highness Tuanku Jaafar beat former Prime Minister
of Malaysia Tun Abdul Razak in the finals. It is no coincidence that their
off springs will later be heavily involved in Malaysian sports.
In fact H.R.H Tunku Imran was
the founding secretary of the Squash Racquets
Association of Malaysia (SRAM) which was formed on 25th June 1972 at the Royal
Lake Club, purely through the collective efforts of a handful of Malaysian
alumni of British Universities. The founder President Dato' Hisham AlBakri served with distinction for six years (1972-1977).
H.R.H Tunku Imran
the current President of the Olympic Council of Malaysia and the Patron
of World Squash Federation (WSF) succeeded him. H.R.H Tunku Tan Sri
became the first National Champion
in 1973 when he beat Dato' Dr. Hood Salleh in the finals. HRH Tunku Tan
Sri was instrumental
in setting the foundation for SRAM
through the very successful "Catch Em' Young" Programme which was
initiated in 1982. As its President for 12 fruitful years (1978 -
1989) he ensured that we got all the 'basics' right. We have
indeed come a long way since then. The successor to H.R.H Tunku
was the late Tan Sri Alex Lee, under whose astute guidance we
achieved the incredible double world junior titles: the World Junior
Men's title won by Ong Beng Hee in Princeton, USA in 1998; and
the World Junior Women's title won by Nicol David in Antwerp,
Belgium
in 1999.
Dato' Nik Mohamed Din took
over the helm of SRAM as Acting President on 1st November
1999 upon the untimely demise of Tan Sri Alex Lee on 31st
October 1999 in a tragic scuba diving trip in Papua New
Guinea. SRAM continued to achieve great heights under Dato'
Nik Mohamed Din, who was unanimously elected on 19th
November 2000 as the fourth President.
The year 2000 could be hailed
as a great year for SRAM when our Men's Team won the Asian
Men's Individual and Team titles in the 10th Asian Squash
Championships held in Hong Kong. Malaysia became the only
country to have beaten the Pakistani Men's team for the two
titles since the inception of the championships in 1981.
SRAM's success story
continued into the year 2001 where Nicol David successfully
defended her World Junior Women Individual title held in
Penang, the home town of Nicol. The win also made her the
first junior to have won the coveted World Junior title
twice.
SRAM continued its dominance
in Asian squash with Ong Beng Hee and Nicol David
successfully defended their Asian Men's and Women's titles
in the Asian Squash Championships 2002 held in Kuala Lumpur.
In October 2002, SRAM played
host to the World Squash Federation (WSF) Annual General
Meeting. Dato' A. Sani Karim, a former Deputy President of
SRAM (1999/2000), was elected as a Vice President of
World Squash Federation for the period 2002 - 2004. Dato' A.
Sani Karim became the second Malaysian senior squash
official to become a member of the WSF Management Committee
after YAM Tunku Tan Sri Imran Ibni Tunku Jaafar, who was the
President of WSF from 1989 - 1996.
On 12th January 2003, Dato'
Mokhzani Mahathir was unanimously elected as the 5th
President of SRAM. Several major contributions were made by
Dato' Mokhzani Mahathir. SRAM's website was introduced in
March 2003. The gala dinner for the 30th year celebration
was held in conjuction with the Malaysian Open 2003 and a
major donor donated RM 1 million to SRAM during the gala
dinner. It was the second time SRAM received such a huge
donations after the World Men's Open 1997 being the first.
Both the mega donations were instrumented by Dato' Mokhzani
Mahathir.
In 2004, SRAM once again
hosted the Asian Squash Championships at the National Squash
Centre, Bukit Jalil. Our top stars Ong Beng Hee and Nicol
David once again successfully defended their Asian titles.
Our Women's Team also retained the team title with our Men's
Team coming in second behind Pakistan.
The most important event that
took place in 2004 was the official announcement of the
National Core Sports Programme by the Cabinet Committee for
Sports chaired by our Most Honourable Deputy Prime Minister
of Malaysia, Datuk Sri Mohd Najib Razak on 8th November 2004
at Putrajaya. Squash was chosen to be one of the 8 sports
under this programme. It was a timely recognition to the
contributions made by SRAM since its inception in 1972.
During the SRAM AGM held on
28th November 2004, Dato' Mokhzani Mahathir named Dato' A.
Sani Karim as his successor and the 6th President of SRAM.
The nomination was unanimously endorsed by all the State
delegates present.
In December 2004, SRAM once
again played host to the Women's World Open in Kuala Lumpur; the first of
which was in 1996 in Petaling Jaya. The Women's World Open 2004 was an
important event for WSF as squash was selected to be one of the
five sports to be reviewed for probable inclusion as a medal
sport in the 2012 Olympic Games. Dato' A. Sani Karim a Vice
President of WSF for the second term was instrumental in
portraying and highlighting to the IOC representative
present during the event (Mr. Bob Elphinston) that squash deserved a
place in the Olympic Games.
SRAM under the dynamic
leadership of Dato' A. Sani Karim organised a squash bonanza
week in July 2005, a first of its kind of activity ever
attempted by any squash organisation in the world. A
series of high profile squash events were held. It started
off with the Malaysian Women's Open 2005; followed by the
WSF Management Committee Meeting and the ASF Officer's
Meeting; and culminating with the Golf for Squash graced by
H.R.H. The King of Malaysia as the Grand Finale. The reigning
World Men's Champion Mr. Thierry Lincou and World Women's
Champion Ms. Vanessa Atkinson along with several other World
top 10 men's and women's professional squash players were
presented to H.R.H. The King of Malaysia during the luncheon
and prize giving ceremony for the Golf for Squash. This
event was widely reported by local and international squash
media as the highest profile squash ever received.
The year 2005 was the most
memorable year for SRAM. Nicol David became the first Asian
to win the coveted British Open on 17th October 2005 and the
Women's World Open title in the Women's World Open
Championship held in Hong Kong on 4th December 2005. These
victories were truly rare international achievements in the
history of Malaysian and Asian sports. |