The Squash World Cup in Chennai is set to take place in June with a revamped format featuring four-strong teams and best of five games to seven points.
The relaunched team event will take place in Chennai, India between June 13-17 and will be the first squash World Cup since 2011.
The 2023 World Cup format will see:
Competition Format: A round robin Pool stage, followed by a Knockout Stage
Team Composition: Contested by teams of two men and two women.
Playing Order: Woman #2, Man #1, Woman #1, Man #2 OR Man #2, Woman #1, Man #1, Woman #2 by coin toss.
Match Scoring: All matches will be played to a best of 5 games to 7 points. At 6-6, the game will still be played to 7 points.
Tie Scoring: A team will be awarded points for winning a match as follows: Women #1 & Man #1 – 2 points; Woman #2 & Man #2 – 1 point. In the knockout stage, in the event of a draw the winning team will be decided by the greater positive difference between games won and lost in a tie.
World Squash Federation CEO William Louis Marie said: “I’m delighted to celebrate this landmark. The relaunch of the Squash World Cup is something that we have been working towards for some time and I extend my thanks to everyone at the Squash Rackets Federation of India and the authorities in Chennai for their remarkable efforts.
“The equal representation of men and women at the upcoming tournament is an exciting format that will move squash towards even greater gender neutrality, which is among the World Squash Federation’s top priorities.”
World No.17 and three-time Commonwealth Games medallist Saurav Ghosal, who was born in Kolkata but moved to Chennai for his junior career, is expected to lead the India team.
Ghosal said: “I think it’s a great thing to have the World Cup home in India. I’m sure everyone associated with the game is going to be super excited watching some of the best players in the world fighting it out for the title and the new format for this event is going to add even more excitement.
“For me personally, it’s great to be playing back home. We don’t get to play as much as we’d like to back in India, so to be able to play in front of the home crowd and do well for India is something we look forward to and hopefully we’ll have a very good tournament in Chennai.”
Further details including detailed rules, teams, squads and streaming information, will be released in due course.