Commonwealth Games 2022: Are biased decisions going against Indian squash players?

The whole of India cheered a mere 14-year-old, Anahat Singh, on as she smoothly moved into the Round of 32 after winning her match at the games. Unfortunately, a highly experienced Emily Whitlock got the better of her. However, murmurs of alleged biased refereeing were heard because Whitlock, the World No. 19, was seen calling for a let almost every other point.

Maybe it was Singh's inexperience that the situation made her refute the referee, but after the Indian won the third set to put herself back into the game, Whitlock was trailing in the fourth set.

In the first few sets, lets were predominant but there were no points awarded for obstruction. As soon as the teen started leading, the Welsh player was given four points for obstruction which certainly harmed the youngster's momentum.

Indian squash fans raged in tandem with Joshna Chinappa after she was found constantly in verbal rifts with the referee. The reason? Tempers were high inside the the transparent box where the referee was constantly putting out decisions in favour of Canada's Hollie Naughton. When Naughton put her hand up for a let, it was promptly awarded. When Chinappa did so, the referee seemed to have asking the question 'To let or not to let, that is the question?' in her mind.

More often than not, points of obstruction were awarded in favour of the Canadian, while the India's review requests were almost never permitted. This certainly had a big toll on Chinappa's mental state during the game as well the points accrued in it.

The Bridge tried to speak to the Indian team's coach, Cyrus Poncha, who just had to say that nothing was unbiased according to him, but there was no point holding on to the negative parts. Saurav Ghosal is yet to play semis and the doubles are also on their way. Hence, coach Cyrus hopes that the good will certainly outweigh the bad at the CWG 2022.