new delhi twotime world championships medallist chris walker has been appointed as indian squash teams foreign coach on an event basis ahead of the commonwealth games and asian games later this yearaccording to a sports ministry release walker who represented england in squash and cycling will be engaged with the indian team for 16 weekswalkers appointment was recommended by the sports authority of indias selection committee and officials of the squash racquet federation of india srfiindia did not have a foreign coach since egypts achraf el karargui left in march 2018 due to differences with srfiwith mark cairns walker won the inaugural world doubles squash championships in 1997 having moved base to the united states he rose to be the national coach of the us teamsrfi secretary general cyrus poncha welcomed walkers appointment saying his credentials speak for itself walkers first assignment with the indian team is likely to be world doubles championship in aprilhe was a top singles players in the world he has won medals in big events including cwg he has what it takes to guide our team in the right direction it is an event based arrangement and not a fulltime appointment poncha told ptithis event based arrangement suits us more as our leading players are on the professional tour for the major part of the year he said adding that srfi is targeting five medals each from asian games and cwgwalker won bronze medals in the 1993 and 1996 world open squash championships and was part of the england teams that claimed silver medals in the world team championships in 1995 and 1997 he also has commonwealth games doubles bronze medals in 1998 and 2002he also represented england in cycling in the commonwealth games in kuala lumpur in 1998i couldnt be more excited about working with team india in such an important year with the run up to the world doubles commonwealth games and asian games said walkeri will be working closely with the federation and i want to help all the indian squash team players prepare absolutely the best they can to play their best squash at these upcoming eventsthe indian mens team comprising saurav ghoshal ramit tandon and mahesh mangaokar recently finished runnerup in the asian team championships in kuala lumpur the womens squad with joshna chinappa sunayna kuruvilla and urwashi joshi made it to the semifinalsthe commonwealth games is due to be held in birmingham from july 28 to august 8 and the asian games in hangzhou china from september 10 to 25india won two silver medals in the commonwealth games 2018 through doubles pairs dipika pallikal karthik partnering joshna chinappa in womens doubles and saurav ghoshal in mixed doublesindia finished the asian games 2018 with five medals including a silver womens team and four bronze medals in three events