Squash on TV
Paul.Baggott
Dedicated efforts to make squash easier to follow on TV are paying off with
worldwide broadcast exposure. By JAY STUART.
There's probably no sport in the world that has worked harder than squash to
make itself attractive to television. Squash has invented new courts with new
walls, it has developed new balls and created a world tour. And the effort has
paid off. Just three years ago there was no co-ordinated international
television coverage. This year for the first time, the highlights programme of
the Hi-Tec Super Series circuit is being seen regularly on major broadcasters
world-wide.
It's easy to understand why squash used to be hard to see. After all it's a
sport played in a closed room with a small ball moving at great speeds.
Allowing cameras to see inside the room was the first problem solved in the
mid-1980s with the development of courts walled with perspex and glass. The
next problem was seeing the ball against the pale surface of these walls. To
solve this, Dunlop invented the Teleball. It had dimples with a reflective
coating which the camera would track with a beam of light. Basically, it glowed
for television. But there was another problem. The Teleball had to be shot from
behind the court. No other angles or close-ups were possible because of the
lighting. Back to the drawing board.
A turning point was the invention of Contravision by Roland Hill in Britain
(one of the main squash-playing territories). This consisted of a
wallpaper-like substance which was applied to the walls of the court creating a
one-way glass effect. The walls remained see-through from the outside but took
on a dark, opaque appearance when seen from the inside. Against the dark walls
a new bright white ball could be easily picked up (and Dunlop supplied it).
With the technical obstacles out of the way, a new world tour has been packaged
for television. The Professional Squash Association contracted Interactive
Promotion and Marketing (IPM) of Wales to produce coverage of a Super Series.
The criteria for an event to qualify boils down to three essentials. It has to
be televised by a local broadcaster, equipped with transparent court facilities
and offer at least $50,000 in prize money.
The current Grand Prix consists of the British Open in Cardiff, the Tournament
of Champions in New York, the Hong Kong Open, the JSM Classic in Japan, the
World Open in Cyprus, the Qatar International and the Mahindra Challenge in
Bombay. A Super Series Final in Zurich is to be confirmed. The tour's title
sponsor, Hi-Tec, is the world market leader in squash equipment.
IPM makes a one-hour highlights program including coaching, interviews and
world squash news. This year the program, distributed by Merlin Television, is
airing on Sky Sports in Britain, M-Net in South Africa and RDS in
French-speaking Canada, as well as Arab TV and Pan-Asian Star TV. More recently
added to the roster is Prime Sports in the US, which has signed a three-year
deal to carry the squash tour (as have Sky and Star).
The Prime deal is a sign of the changes taking place in the US, where people
have leaned toward the "hardball" version of the game rather that the one
played in the rest of the world. The hardball fraternity has lately become a
part of the PSA, and squash's popularity is growing on the West Coast
especially. The sport's following is strongest in Western Europe, Brazil and
Argentina. Asia is likely to be the main growth region of the future.
"Our intention is to create a year-long calendar of televisual events for
squash like tennis and golf already have," says Paul Beddoe, IPM's marketing
director. The PSA and the Womens Professional Squash Players Association are
working with the World Squash Federation to make that a reality. Meanwhile, the
idea is to get squash on the air once a month around the world.
JAY STUART is Consultant Editor of SPORTIME.