The World Squash Federation has got on board with Squash Mads Right Ball campaign and is urging squash clubs across the globe to help players stay in the game, many of whom are simply using the wrong ball.

The WSF has partnered with Dunlop (other balls are available of course) to highlight the issue and stop recreational players being handed a double yellow dot ball which invariably means less bounce, shorter rallies (if any) and sucking the enjoyment from our game.

I visited Open Squashs venue on the fifth floor in New York and they had boxes of balls outside each court with guidance about picking the right one, WSF President Zena Wooldridge told Squash Facilities Network in a recent interview. Thats exactly the kind of support wed like to see.

Unless were re-educating that key person on the front desk, we wont change the dial on this. Its about simplicity making that message succinct and easily understood. Its something we need to keep pushing.

Squash observers say that the double yellow dot is killing large parts of the game and new players are being put off from continuing in the sport by simply using the wrong ball. It is why Squash Mad launched the Right Ball campaign last September.

Dunlop say they will now mixed boxes of 12 rather than their previous packs of a dozen balls with double yellow, single yellows, red and blues.

The hope is that facilities will now be educated in the different types of ball which exist on the market, rather than the double yellow used by the elite.

According to the Squash Facilities Network, the WSF and Dunlop are in talks on the next stage such as potentially changing the names of the ball categories (currently Pro, Competition, Progress and Intro), or whether the four balls could be different colours entirely (rather than just dots).

Wooldridge said: If we looked at inventing a version of squash that is the equivalent of padel, using existing infrastructure, that was easy to play, easy to understand, extended our market reach and kept existing players in our squash communities, what would we invent? We would probably invent Squash 57!

We already have the solution, but there just seems to be a resistance to promoting and adopting it as an extension to our existing sport. Thats one aspect that puzzles me. Some nations are resistant to it. People ask me, what are we doing about padel? We have the solution here!

Weve got something that is really consistent with squash, can bring a lot more female participation, keep our older players playing, but we dont quite have the promotional resource behind it to make it really fly.