When focus is on a cameraman at the ongoing World Junior Squash Championships

He is none other than Steve Cubbins, the official webmaster and photographer for the WSF World Juniors 2018. In spite of a tightly-packed schedule, he has worked tirelessly behind the lens to help fans from all over the world get a glimpse of the action through social media.  “I work for a few squash sites and the World Squash Federation (WSF). I have been on board for most of the WSF events in the recent past,” said Cubbins, who has been a part of the tournament for the past five years.

“We basically take care of the tournament’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages as well as the website,” added the Englishman.

The action had shifted from the ISA Academy to the Express Avenue mall for the final phase of the tournament. Cubbins, who is on his fourth visit to India, was impressed with the jam-packed attendance on Saturday. For the second successive day, the general public were even allowed to sit in areas allocated for the volunteers and the press. “I have covered a lot but not that many in shopping malls. This definitely had the most people hanging over the balconies,” opined the Birmingham-born man.

“When we started (referring to the first game of the day), there were quite a few open spaces. As the day went on, it was full and it stayed the same until the end,” he added.   The going has certainly got easier for the Newcastle-based official at the World Juniors as he had to manage a number of matches during the first few rounds of the global junior event.  “It’s not too difficult at the mall because you have got only one match going on at a time. During the initial stages, we had eight matches simultaneously, which is impossible to cover. In such instances, we stay for about two or three rallies and move to the next match,” asserted Cubbins, who began his stint in squash with the British Open in 1999.

“When it came to the last sixteen, the schedule really didn’t help. That annoyed me (laughs), it was difficult,” he went on to state further.   Apart from squash, Cubbins has also worked for the All England Badminton Championships for a brief period of five years, ending his association in 2014.