Art Of Giving Back: Ex-National Junior Squash Champion Rhea Bhandare Has Been Promoting Squash And Ensuring Access To The Sport For People From Underpriviledged Backgrounds

Q: How did your initiation into squash happen and how was that journey as a squash player?

A: My dad introduced me to squash and he is an avid squash player even at 75. Satinderpal Bajwa came down for a summer camp and there were 20 of us chosen. It was at the CCI and we used to train seven hours a day. The first tournament that I played was the Hong Kong Open in 1997 in the under-14 category. I won this tournament and I was the first Indian girl to actually win an international tournament then.

I started travelling the world playing tournaments in Europe like the Belgium Open, Bournemouth Open, Malaysian Open etc.

The highest rank I got was 3rd. I wanted to be National champion, win international tournaments, be one of the best in the world and then go. So, I'm glad I made my mark.

Q: How did your background in squash help in the founding of Sports XL?

A: When I was working in my family business and I'm still involved there. We are in the eyecare space for over 90 years. I used to play a lot of squash. I used to organise a tournament once every three months for the community here. I wasn't making money out of it and then I felt maybe I should get into it because I was so passionate and that's when I started Five Sports. We did it from 2017-2019 and then I realised I can do it on my own. That's when I sort of launched Sports XL in 2019. The reason was that I was really passionate about sports and wanted to get more people to play sport and just be healthy. I decided to get into this on my own and that's how it happened.

Q: What was your vision when launching Sports XL?

A: The vision was to give people more access to sports whichever way I can, promote healthy living and produce champions. I just felt that these three pillars were important and everything I do is centred around that. I felt ten years in the corporate world really help me set up my business, whether it is hiring the right team, you know having our verticals in place. And all the credibility and goodwill I have in squash helped me tremendously because I do a lot of stuff with the federation. I have been doing stuff outside of squash."

Q: How far have you been successful in ensuring more access to sports for people from less fortunate backgrounds?

A: There are multiple things that we have done. First ofcourse is the academies. We have academies here at the Willingdon Sports Club. There are academies in other cities as well. We have them in Hyderabad, Bengaluru etc. We have them in residential complexes here in Mumbai. I started academies for kids from low income homes in Dharavi two years ago. We train them at Bombay Gymkhana and Somaiyya University and they have been very generous and given it to us for free. That's sort of a pilot test what we have undertaken. So academies is one. Camps is second vertical, So there is Joshna Chinnappa, Sourav Ghosal, Mahesh Mandgaonkar, Harinderpal Sandhu etc. So all these people have come to different parts of India and given talks.

During Covid, Sourav did online talks. Mahesh was teaching squash online and he did a lot of these fitness programs. Over 1000 people have been impacted. With tournaments, we do it at a national and international level. Anahat Singh played our tournament earlier this year at Willingdon and we had people from seven countries. We have had representation from 20 states. I work with big corporates like JSW, Vedanta etc. "We have just launched Sporting Infrastructure. I'm passionate about it for a very long time. We've got space where we are building every thing. From squash to tennis to swimming whatever. We are in talks with some large real estate firms and we are going to be launching and starting work in the next few weeks."

Q: Tell us more about your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives..

A: So I work with corporates in terms of consulting and sometimes they say Rhea we have 100 crores to spend in promoting sports and how do we go about it. We sort of put a consulting piece together and help them allocate funds. Another thing I'm working on is to get 10,000 kids from all over India in the grassroots level to play squash in the next five years. Like I was telling you about my pilot test at Dharavi, so we are picking them up at the age of eight or nine and train them so that they potentially play in the Indian circuit and play for India as well as give them a livelihood. So I've tied up with Somaiyya University so that's where we get our courts. So, the partnership is that we can get these kids to play for them since inter-university sport is a big thing and they will give them scholarships. For the 10,000 kids, we are looking at creating a prototype where we can have a portable squash court. We are working with another corporate and we will build this and put this up in a school. So it will either be a part of school curriculum or after school depending on what the school wants. We have already tied up with multiple schools and we are also in talks with Art of Living and we are looking at doing a pan-India initiative. All these schools have