HISTORY OF SRAM
The game of Squash in Malaysia can be traced back to the colonial days when the British Armed Forces introduced it in the Military Camps and private members-only clubs scattered around the country. At that time it was a game enjoyed mainly by the Armed Forces Officers, the British Civil Service expatriates, planters, miners and a handful of locals who had experienced playing the game abroad.
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.
2006 saw Nicol David taking over the World No. 1 ranking from Vanessa Atkinson of Netherlands, well ahead of our targeted date of end of 2006.. Nicol’s extraordinary achievements in 2005 culminating in the World Open title which then propelled to her new World No.1 ranking in January 2006 made her the only female athlete to have achieved such a feat in the history of Malaysian sports.
Also in January 2006, SRAM again provided the Malaysian sports fan an outstanding international junior achievement through Tan Yan Xin who defied all odds to win the coveted British Junior Open Girl’s Under-13 title. Yan Xin had to battle against three (3) higher seeded top Egyptian juniors including the defending champion en route to her deserving win.
At the Asian Squash Championship held in February of 2006, at Chinese Taipei the Malaysian contingent created history by bagging all the four titles at stake, i.e. Individual Men’s and Women’s title, Men’s and Women’s team title. It was the FIRST TIME EVER a member nation of ASF had won all the four titles. Infact Malaysia had been the only country previously to have captured three (3) of the four (4) titles at stake at the Asian Championship and we had done it on three occasion i.e. 2000, 2002 and 2004. Also at this Championship, Nicol David and Ong Beng Hee created a new championship record by winning the individual title for the fifth and fourth time respectively.
It was the turn of our Junior Boys to step out and in July of 2006, at Palmerston North, New Zealand our boys recorded MALAYSIA’S BEST EVER position at the World Junior Men’s Championship. The Malaysian team (Elvinn Keo, Chong Kam Hing, Ivan Yuen and Muhd. Asyraf Azan) emerged a proud 3rd in the team championship. In the individual championship, Malaysians Elvinn Keo and Chong Kam Hing made it to the last 16 in a draw of 128. It was again the first time ever that we had 2 Malaysians in the last 16 of a World Championship.
The Malaysian senior women’s team ( Nicol David, Sharon Wee, Tricia Chuah and Delia Arnold) at the World Women’s Team Championship at Edmonton, Canada in September of 2006 created another record in our squash annals. The team achieved the high position of 3rdand this again was our best ever performance for this Championship.
What better way to to round off 2006 then in a blaze of glory. At the Doha Asian Games 2006 from 1st to 15th December 2006, the Malaysian contingent lived up to their promise to deliver both the Gold Medals at stake in squash. In an all-Malaysian men’s final, Ong Beng Hee took the Gold medal by beating compatriot, Mohd Azlan Iskandar in 4 sets. Beng Hee thus walked off as the back-to-back winner of the Asian Games Gold Medal, which he first won in 2002 in Busan. Nicol David who had just earlier retained her World crown at Dublin, Ireland went to Doha as the undisputed World No. 1 player. Rebecca Chiu of Hong Kng had denied Nicol the Gold Medal at the earlier 2002 Busan Asian Games. Nicol was in no compromising mood to allow history to repeat and in the finals, with a straight sets victory walked off easily with the Gold Medal.
The year 2007 started with Nicol David well perched on the pinnacle of World Women’s Squash. She went on to remain No.1 for the rest of the year. She was also named the Malaysian Sportwomen of the Year for 2006 and the Asian Sportwomen of the Year for 2007.
In August 2007 at Hong Kong, Malaysia’s Junior Women’s team ( Low Wee Wern, Low Wee Nee, Nesserine Ariffin and Pushpa Devi) continued Malaysia’s impressive performances at world events by coming out 2nd in the World Junior Women’s Team Championship. This equaled Malaysia’s best ever past performance in this Championship.
After being initially dropped, SRAM played an important role in ensuring that Squash remained in the programme for the 2007 SEA Games at Korat, Thailand. Unfortunately, due to the lack of entries, only the Men’s individual event was held. Malaysians featured in the very exciting final, with Elvinn Keo prevailing over Mohd. Nahzahizam Adnan to capture the Gold medal.
Not to be out done by the other Malaysians, the Malaysian Senior Men’s team (Ong Beng Hee, Mohd. Azlan Iskandar, Mohd. Nafiizwan Adnan and Muhd. Asyraf Azan) recorded Malaysia’s best ever position at the 2007 World Men’s Team Championship at Chennai, India by securing the 5th placing.
Moving into 2008, Nicol David was well entrenched as the World No. 1 player. Malaysia’s sterling performance at international Championships continued when the Malaysia team for the second time in a row swept all four (4) titles i.e. Individual Men’s and Women’s title, Men’s and Women’s team title at the Asian Squash Championship held at Kuwait in February, 2008. This feat by the Malaysians’ would be hard to match by the other Asian nations. Mohd. Azlan Iskandar turned the table around this time by beating fellow compatriot and the defending champion, Ong Beng Hee. It was his first Asian title. Nicol David retained her title for the sixth time. The Malaysian Men’s team comprised of Mohd. Azlan Iskandar, Ong Beng Hee, Mohd. Nafiizwan Adnan and Muhd. Asyraf Azan, while the Women’s Team was made-up of Nicol David, Sharon Wee, Delia Arnold and Low Wee Wern.
SPONSORS AND CORPORATE PARTNER (RAKAN SUKAN)
NATIONAL SPORTS COUNCIL OF MALAYSIA
Sponsors and Corporate Partner (Rakan Sukan) played a pivotal role in SRAM’s vision of becoming one of the top squash nations in the world.
The Government of Malaysia, through the National Sports Council of Malaysia (NSC) is the biggest sponsor to SRAM’s programmes. NSC’s sponsorship has enabled SRAM to develop a long term ‘Blue Print’ to produce world class players. The most successful programme sponsored by the NSC was the Commonwealth Games 1998 Athletes Preparation Programme, ie Jaya 98 Programme. The Jaya 98 Programme was introduced in 1994 and it kickstarted SRAM’s world class athletes programme. Our current crop of world class athletes, namely Mohd Azlan Iskandar, Ong Beng Hee, Nicol David, Sharon Wee and Tricia Chuah are the products of the Jaya 98 Programme.
Upon the completion of the Jaya 98 Programme, the NSC introduced the Gemilang Programme in the year 2000 for the new millennium. It was a new challenge for Malaysian sports. This programme’s main objective was to prepare Malaysian athletes for the SEA Games 2001, Kuala Lumpur.
The squash event was held at the Penang International Squash Centre, Bukit Dumbar and our players contributed four (4) gold medals towards Malaysia emerging as the overall winner in the 111 gold medal tally of the SEA Games 2001, Kuala Lumpur.
The NSC continued the Programme as the Gemilang 2008 Programme which was aimed at preparing Malaysian athletes towards the Commonwealth Games 2006, Melbourne and Asian Games 2006, Doha, Qatar.
This programme enabled SRAM to embark on a long term attachment of its top athletes in Europe.
SRAM is extremely grateful for the huge support given by the NSC which enabled the Association to successfully achieve the numerous regional and international titles through its world class athletes.
CORPORATE SPONSORS
Corporate sponsors indeed contributed hugely to the success of SRAM’s programmes, especially in the form of tournaments and championships held locally. SRAM is extremely grateful to all its corporate sponsors and in particular SportExcel, Nestle Malaysia (MILO), Dunlop Malaysia, Mulpha International, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, Country View, World Of Sports, Ever Triumph and others
The most successful and longest running tournament is the SportExcel Junior Squash Circuit introduced in 1993. Thousands of junior men and junior women players from Asia and Oceania including our local players graduated into the seniors through this circuit. This junior circuit has been graced subsequently by world top ten players eg. Ong Beng Hee, Anthony Ricketts and Nicol David.
CORPORATE PARTNER (RAKAN SUKAN)
The Corporate Partner Programme (Rakan Sukan) was another interesting programme introduced by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 1995. The main objective of this programme was to encourage Malaysia’s caring corporations to adopt a sport to be their partner. Corporations concerned were to provide the necessary financial assistance and management skills to elevate the status of the chosen sports to the world level.
SRAM was given a corporate partner in 1996. The corporation was YTL Corporation Berhad, a locally based and highly successful multi-national corporation. YTL remained as SRAM’s corporate partner for eight fruitful years, from 1996 to 2003 providing a total of RM 4 million. Numerous development programmes were introduced through this huge contribution. The most successful programme was the setting up of a fully equipped State Training Centre in all the 14 states.
In July 2005, SRAM was honoured to sign up with a new corporate partner, the CIMB Group. The CIMB Group is a universal banking group and is Southeast Asia’s largest investment bank. This timely partnership, along with the Core Sports Programme, has provided SRAM the much needed financial assistance to expand its high performance and development programmes with more vigour and confidence.
Through the combined support of the above sponsors, SRAM aspires to fulfill its VISION ie, a top four position in all the world championships through its PROJECT 2010 (2008).
Thank you