The World Squash Federation (WSF) has agreed to an affiliation with SquashInfo.com and World Squash Library (WSL), alongside the European Squash Federation (ESF), the Asian Squash Federation (ASF) and the Professional Squash Association (PSA).
For the WSF, the Library will begin to unearth missing results from past world championships in publications and personal records. SquashInfo, which provides digitised and searchable records of the world’s leading players and events in one place, will add them to their results cache.
“The WSF has immediately supported this crucial task undertaken by SquashInfo and WSL to become the official data hub of our sport and we encourage all squash organisations to ensure their past and present information is preserved and available across all channels and to the widest audience,” said WSF CEO William Louis-Marie.
WSL founder Andrew Shelley added: “SquashInfo and the WSL share identical goals, namely to make available all the sport’s most significant records, results, player data and history – both digitally and physically.
“Hitherto, much of this information has been available – but from a variety of different sources.”
SquashInfo boasts the sport’s most comprehensive database, featuring results from almost 10,000 events going back to the mid-1950s; details of around 20,000 players from some 150 nations; and world ranking lists back to the earliest in 1975.
WSL is an independent ‘not-for-profit’ initiative to ensure that books, magazines, championship programmes, results, images and other information can be brought together in one place to respond to enquiries from current players, media, Federations, students – simply anyone wanting information on the long or near past, and preserved for the future.
For the PSA, SquashInfo and the Library will assist with historical player information, event and player stats, and other details as required, while ESF and ASF will benefit from improved records and results from regional championships.
The PSA’s Chief Commercial Officer Tommy Berden commented: “Preserving the history of the sport is incredibly important and both the World Squash Library and Squash Info have helped to ensure that key stats, dates and events have been made available to the squash community.
“Our work with the World Squash Library and Squash Info will complement our existing archive of statistical information, which will allow us to tell greater stories around the sport and our athletes.”
ESF President Thomas Troedsson said: “We are delighted with the agreed arrangement with SquashInfo.com and World Squash Library. The goal is to preserve our history completely, store it safely and offer an extra service to our member nations. ESF supports WSL & SI in doing so, and we will work closely together.”
Find out more about SquashInfo.com and World Squash Library.