By Amla Pisharody
Dipika Pallikal has won the National Squash Championship! On Sunday, she played in the championship after a gap of five years to go head-to-head with Indian top seed, Joshna Chinnappa (who is headed to the Rio Olympics), beating Joshna Chinappa 4-11, 11-6, 11-2, 11-8.
The match between 24-year-old Pallikal and 29-year-old Chinappa has been much-awaited, which was obvious from the large crowd that had to be pushed through to allow a passage for the players. Pallikal, who is world No 19, is a Padma Shri awardee, the first woman squash player to receive the Arjuna Award, and has reached a previous world ranking of No 10.
In 2011, Pallikal won the National Squash Championship and was awarded prize money that was much lower — by around 40 percent — than that of the men’s title winner. In protest, she boycotted subsequent National Championships until this year, when it was confirmed that men and women would receive equal prize money of Rs 1.25 lakh.
Pallikal’s bold protest paid off, and to the delight of squash fans in India, she played and won the 73rd National Squash Championship at the Otter’s Club. In a press conference after the match, Pallikal talked about the boycott and said, “I have never played for money; if I wanted to, I would have played some other sport. It’s all about respect. I have been vocal about it. The prize money is equal in major tournaments in the world.”
Equal prize money for men and women has been a contentious issue in the global sports community (see if these numbers don’t knock you off your feet). In March this year, men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic aired his thoughts on why male tennis players should make more money. The same month, the American women’s soccer team, which won the FIFA 2015 World Cup, went public with their wage discrimination lawsuit against the governing body for the sport in the country, saying they earned as little as 40 percent of the men’s team (which one publication calls “historically mediocre”).
Pallikal’s boycott of the National Squash Championships earned her much criticism and vitriol, but it paid off. She blazed a trail for other sportswomen to fight for respect and equal rights. And then pulled off a fantastic win on the squash court.