Nicol understands cloud over hall of fame honour
· Yahoo Sports
Squash great Peter Nicol says it is "understandable" why some might remember him more for his controversial switch of allegiance from Scotland to England rather than the on-court achievements that led him to the sport's hall of fame.
The Inverurie-born 53-year-old was recently recognised by the Professional Squash Association for a groundbreaking career during which he won the world title, four Commonwealth Games gold medals and 49 main tour titles.
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He hit the headlines in 2001, when he switched to represent England, a move he felt would better support the rest of his career.
Twenty five years on it is a decision that remains a talking point, especially with Greg Lobban, currently the highest-ranked Scot, in the process of applying for Australian citizenship.
Asked about his own switch, Nicol told BBC Scotland: "It is understandable that would probably come to some people's minds first and foremost because I think it was the most publicity I ever got as a squash player, so I get it completely and it was also controversial.
"So I didn't do it not knowing what was potentially going to be the response.
"You don't play squash to get huge amounts of credit and plaudits from media and society in general. You do it because you are driven for yourself and what you want to achieve, otherwise I would have taken up a different sport or gone into business or done something else that would have seen a greater return in that regard."
Should Inverness-born Lobban, who is 28 in the world standings, complete his move to Australia, there would only be one men's player competing under the Scottish flag in the top 200 - Rory Stewart, who is 88th.
Nicol, who spent five years as world number one - and more than a decade in the top 10 - said: "I think we know in the past decade, two decades, that football has taken a big part of all sporting communities and then the other big sports as well and some of the smaller sports have really been pushed to the periphery in terms of participation.
"A lot of that is to do with we see all the football players, we see the rugby players, we see the golfers, so it is exciting and you may want to be like someone like that.
"When I grew up, I certainly was seeing [squash] on the major TV channels. I was watching Jahangir Khan [six-time world squash champion] play and Jonah Barrington [six-time British Open champion] and they were household names, so therefore I wanted to aspire to be something like that and right now we don't have that."
Squash making its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028 will be "huge" for the sport, Nicol believes.
"If we can become a legacy sport in the Olympics, that would be phenomenal," he said.
"We have already seen the interest levels rise. I am a coach in the north east of the US and most of the players or all the players I coach will not get into the Olympics, but there is a different level of interest, a different level of seriousness to it because it legitimises the sport in so many people's eyes."