Saumya Karki of Maharashtra, last year's champion, heads the modest-reading women's line up in the tournament.
'Except for Sourav Ghosal and Mahesh Mangaonkar, country's leading men players are taking part. The men's winner would take home Rs 1.25 lakh and the runner-up Rs 63,000,' said Naval Pandole, vice chairman of the Cricket Club of India's organising committee at a media conference.
Also in the men's fray are India no. 3 Harinderpal Sandhu and Sandeep Jangra of the Services. The juniors event has attracted entries from Tamilnadu and Rajasthan.
'This tournament, which to my knowledge is the oldest squash event in the world, would act as the tune-up event for the coming nationals in Jaipur', Pandole said.
Pandole, a long-time squash administrator, said the CCI is going ahead to revamp the squash courts at its premises. 'We are tearing down the old courts and converting them into glass-backed ones. After renovation we would have six glass-backed courts. We would also have a court in the future exclusively for doubles play,' he said.
