PUNE: Three teenage girls from three different corners of Maharashtra have achieved something Indian squash selectors rarely see from a single grassroots programme. Anika Dubey from Pune, Akanksha Gupta from Thane, and Vasundhara Nangare from Kalamb have all cleared the Sports and Racquet Federation of India (SRFI) selection round for the 33rd Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships, to be held in Panzhihua, China, in May 2026. All three train under Kanga Kids, a programme run by the Chance2Sports Foundation.
The achievement is more striking for what the three players do not share. Dubey is already a known quantity in Indian junior squash, an Asian bronze medallist from the 32nd championships in 2025 in the under-17 category. Gupta, from Thane, is a returning continental campaigner who has earned her place in a previous Asian junior squad and returned this year with the composure of someone who knows exactly what high-stakes selection demands. Nangare is the most remarkable story of the three. She grew up in Kalamb, a town in Ahmednagar district that does not have a squash court of its own, was spotted at a talent identification camp that came to her doorstep and had no prior competitive exposure. By 13, she had finished third at the under-15 Asian junior trials.
The road to the championships is a serious one. Players qualify for the SRFI trials on the basis of national ranking points accumulated across the domestic junior circuit, including the sub-junior and junior nationals, the Indian Junior Open and the Khelo India Youth Games. Selection matches are held at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai under SRFI and Sports Authority of India supervision, with athletes competing head-to-head for a place in the probable squad. A training camp follows before the final contingent is named for an event that draws top players across the under-13, under-15, under-17 and under-19 age groups from 17 nations.
Chance2Sports was built on the conviction that talent is distributed evenly but opportunity is not. Abhinav Sinha began coaching children on a public court at Thube Park, Pune, in 2014. Since then the foundation has run identification camps in village grounds in Kalamb, school courts in Aurangabad and flood-prone courts in Assam. More than 300 athletes have trained through the system. Several have become national champions. Four represented India at the Asian juniors in 2025.
The Kanga Kids partnership, between Kanga and Chance2Sports, provides selected athletes with equipment, tournament travel and coaching access, the practical barriers that most often end promising careers before they begin.
“I have always believed in the potential of young athletes from overlooked areas,” said Abhinav Sinha, co-founder of Chance2Sports Foundation and SportsSkill. “Instead of waiting for talent to approach us, we sought it out. It has been a privilege to watch these athletes achieve things the system never planned for them.”
Chetan Desai, co-founder of Chance2Sports Foundation and SportsSkill, was equally direct. “We are flipping the model. Dedication, discipline, and consistency matter more than privilege. What these three girls have achieved at the selection round is proof that the system works, and that it deserves to grow.”
The foundation is now running a Rs 25 crore fundraising initiative to scale the work over the next five years, targeting national identification camps, support for 150 athletes with world-class coaching, nutrition and sports science, and its most ambitious goal yet: producing India’s first world junior squash gold medallist from a community programme. In parallel, Chance2Sports and SportsSkill are set to launch a larger community programme in Pune, featuring upgraded infrastructure and high-performance training pathways.
The 33rd Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships will be held at the Sichuan Panxi Sub-plateau Sports Training Base, Hongge International Sports, Wellness and Hot Spring Resort, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City. Three postcodes in Maharashtra are already booked on that flight.