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SL’s Ravindu Laksiri among world’s top 200 squash players

07 Nov 2022

Ravindu Laksiri – reigning and nine times national champion – became the first Sri Lankan men’s player to break into the top 200 Professional Squash Association (PSA) International world ranking, and that too in style, winning the second Bangabandhu PSA International Challenger Squash Tournament held in Bangladesh in October 2022. Employed and fully supported by Brandix Apparel Ltd., Laksiri entered the Ministry of Sports-funded High-Performance Programme in September 2021. This enabled Sri Lanka Squash to hire former Pakistani national coach Rehman Gul to steer the High-Performance Programme. With the help of Brandix, Laksiri has represented Sri Lanka in PSA tournaments in Australia, England, and many other Asian countries this year. During this short period under the guidance of Coach Gul, Laksiri ’s world ranking improved from 654 to 199. Looking back at his journey, he claimed he was able to achieve many major milestones in the year 2022 that no other Sri Lankan squash player has ever achieved. PSA international tournaments require prior qualification points, and Laksiri qualified for such a tournament this year for the first time as Sri Lanka Squash enabled top Sri Lankan players to obtain PSA membership and by arranging PSA satellite tournaments in Sri Lanka to obtain the much-needed initial points to qualify for international PSA tournaments.   Laksiri, who was a quarterfinalist at the first edition of the Bangabandhu PSA International Challenger Squash Tournament came into this edition as the No. 8 seed. He started the tournament with a comfortable 14-minute victory over Bangladeshi Abid Mansur, then got the better of Iranian’s Sepehr Etemdapoor as his giant-killing run got underway. He then took on No. 2 seed Duncan Lee and No. 4 seed Amir Amirul from Malaysia, respectively, in the quarterfinals and semifinals before finally taking on higher-ranked Egypt’s Ziad Ibrahim in the final.  In the final, he started strong and won the first two games, but saw Ibrahim fighting back to win the third. However, Laksiri regrouped and took a tight fourth game 11-9 to clinch his first international tour title. His PSA ranking of 199 is the highest-ever ranking for a Sri Lankan men’s player.  This win has been a big boost for Sri Lanka Squash, the official body for squash in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Squash President Suren Kohombange stated: “This has been an amazing journey for Ravindu (Laksiri) and for all at Sri Lanka Squash. Our ability to provide a focused high-performance programme coupled with outstanding international coaching expertise has paid dividends and validated our talent potential.  For a spirited player like Ravindu to progress from 600 in the world to 199 in such a short time augurs well for the high-performance programme of Sri Lanka Squash, the Ministry of Sports, and all our sponsors. It also serves to motivate other players in the programme and those aspiring to focus on the sport. I would like to thank the Ministry of Sports and the National Sports Council responsible for setting up the high-performance programme, and our sponsors, Coach Rehman Gul and other supporting coaches and staff involved in this programme.”   The high-performance team is headed by former Pakistani national coach and now Sri Lankan national coach Rehman Gul and is supported by coaches Gihan Suwaris, Naduni Gunawardena, and physical trainer Ashan Gamlath. Sri Lanka Squash managed the programme with the support of Director General of Sports Development Amal Edirisooriya and other officials from the Ministry of Sports. The Sports Medicine Unit headed by Director General Dr. Lal Ekanayake and Dr. Rukmal from the sports medicine unit too provided much-needed medical support and advice to the players, both locally, and while on tour.   Sri Lanka Squash stated that they owe a debt of gratitude to Brandix Apparel Ltd. for supporting Laksiri at all times, and to Yeti Isotonic and CBL Nutriline who have been supporting Sri Lanka Squash’s National Development and High-Performance Programme. Ritzbury Chocolates too played a major role in helping Sri Lanka Squash for the last 14 years in developing the junior programmes which developed players like Ravindu Laksiri.   Given the potential that has been seen, Sri Lanka Squash is launching a programme to take the sport to satellite locations such as Galle, Kurunegala, Kandy, and Mannar in line with a five-year plan of Sri Lanka Squash in taking the game to the next level. Ravindu Laksiri  


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