Sponsor of the event, Chamberlain Usoh, who spoke at the weekend during a media parley in Lagos, said that he has full confidence in the leadership of new President of the federation, Boye Oyerinde, to take squash to fresh heights.
He revealed that about $12,000 will be up for grabs at the tournament which will feature both local and international players.
According to Osoh, one of the key reasons for sponsoring the championship, he revealed, is to ensure that more Nigerians get ranked in the Professional Squash Association (PSA), ranking.
In his remarks, Oyerinde, thanked the sponsors for finding squash as a veritable sport for sponsorship and assured him and other stakeholders in the sport that they will not be disappointed with their investment.
The new squash boss further assured stakeholders that the new board has been reaching out to great minds of the past to help reposition the sport.
“Former President of the board, Dr Kayode Roberts is on the board and we have been making moves to bring people like like Barr. FRA Williams and Barr. George Etomi, so that we can together move the game forward and the discussions with these great men have so far been fruitful,” he revealed.
Oyerinde, said the clincher is the to revive the annual Chairman’s Squash Tournament for sports journalists, that was initiated by Dr Roberts and sooner than later the media will be awash with plans for the tournament expected to coincide with a major national or international tourney.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, yesterday unveiled the trophy of the maiden edition of the Chamberlain Squash Open
Speaking at the event, Lagos police chief hailed the promoter of the CSO, Mr Chamberlain Usoh for putting together what he described as a beautiful and excellent initiative worthy of support.
“If Chamberlain that is not extremely rich can put together this, then it should be supported because the more you keep people out with meaningful engagements like this, the more you keep them out of crime.
“When the youths see the prizes to be won, they will want to be deeply involved in the programme.
“The debut game was played by a police guy called Jerry and another fellow. We have some other players too from the police sports unit competing for honours here.
“I came here to cheer my people. We hope the best player wins but I have told Chamberlain the trophy is coming to us in the police.
The competition began yesterday amidst fanfare as the 89 players than registered for the competition, including the tournament top seed, Tom Ford, were on ground to play the preliminary games.
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