Ramachandran received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar award, which is the highest honour the Government can bestow upon an individual, from India's President Pratibha Patil in the capital New Delhi.

Ramachandran was elected as WSF President in 2008 but is best known in India for having established the Indian Squash Academy (ISA) in his home city of Chennai more than ten years ago.

The ISA has not only nurtured a number of top international players - including Saurav Ghosal, who last year became the country's highest world-ranked player ever - but has also hosted a number of leading international events.

"The conferment of the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar is the highest award that the Government can bestow," said the WSF President.

"It is a tribute to the dedication and hard work of the coaches and trainees of the Indian Squash Academy.

"Players, coaches and referees from all over India have benefited from the programmes of the Indian Squash Academy and this award will only rededicate the academy to further propagate the growth of squash in India.

"Over many years, the Indian Squash Academy has also hosted all major WSF world championships.

"This unparalleled government recognition augurs well not only for Indian squash but also for WSF and our dream of becoming an Olympic sport."

The WSF have failed with two previous efforts to get the sport included in the Olympics after they failed to join the programme for London 2012 and Rio 2016.

However, squash is one of eight sports shortlisted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for inclusion in 2020 Olympics and the WSF have hired Mike Lee's company Vero to help them after Lee and his team helped the International Rugby Board (IRB) in its successful campaign two years ago to get rugby sevens onto the programme for Rio 2016.

The bid, however, has already attracted controversy after the WSF were forced to drop former world number one Jonathon Power from its new ambassador programme last month after insidethegames revealed that he had tested positive for banned drugs.

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