England Squash & Racketball (ESR) has agreed a deal which will see the governing body deploying its coaches at publicly-owned leisure centres in the south east.

The deal, with leisure trust Fusion Lifestyle, will also include a 'pay and play' scheme allowing amateur players using the public courts operated by Fusion to become a member of ESR and take part in tournaments and coaching initiatives.

The agreement is the second national partnership that ESR has secured in the past six months and forms part of ESR's long term strategy to increase participation in the two sports by 65,000 new participants over four years.

ESR secured a similar deal with DC Leisure late last year.

Steve Amos, head of the national network at ESR, said: "With such a high percentage of squash courts located within local authority venues, working with major operators obviously forms a key part of our strategy to increase participation.

"Following our recent DC Leisure agreement last year, we are delighted to secure our second national agreement. London and the South East are priority areas for us and we are looking forward to expanding further in this area as Fusion Lifestyle grows with us."

England Squash currently has over 950 clubs under its membership and expects to increase this by around 30 per cent to 1,200 in the run up to the London 2012 Games.