Indian legend Achanta Sharath Kamal believes table tennis is being repackaged into a better product with events like WTT Star Contender. As a newly-inducted ‘Chair’ of Athletes Commision at International Table Tennis Federation, the Arjuna Awardee paddler is braced up for the challenges of taking the administration and players along.
Although the ongoing WTT Star Contender Goa 2023 did not go according to his plans as a participant, Sharath Kamal was impressed with the show put on at India’s first ever WTT event.
Asked about his approach to the new chapter pertaining to his off-the-field career, the Khel Ratna and Padma Shri recipient explained the task. “It’s about understanding the requirements of the players, requirements of the administration and (then) bridge the gap between both of them. Forming new policies, and at the same time taking the players along to see the growth of table tennis is at a greater speed,” stated Sharath Kamal at a press conference on Saturday. He is looking forward to the second Executive Committee meeting of ITTF Athletes Commision coming up in Singapore.
With table tennis witnessing a host of high quality young talent coming through of late and the trend of upsets on display even at WTT Goa, 40-year-old Sharath Kamal underlined the revolution the sport of TT is going through. “I am sure we have come a long way in the last few months..the WTT, ITTF and players coming together, is building a strong product. When you see this event here, everybody is so happy to see table tennis being presented in this way,” said Sharath Kamal, who started playing TT competitively at the age of 16.
Petra Sorling, ITTF President, emphasised the significance of Athletes Commision, saying : “It is very helpful and important for us to listen to the voice of the athletes.”
The Swedish sports administrator also hopes that the ongoing WTT Star Contender will boost Indian table tennis.
“Being here at the event, it also feels like a new generation is coming up and I am sure this event will inspire the next generation of Indian table tennis players,” said Sorling, who has been at the helm of ITTF since 2021.
Former India table tennis star Kamlesh Mehta, who is now the general secretary of Table Tennis Federation of India, meanwhile pointed out a few steps his Committee intends to take to prepare a competitive bunch of talents to meet the global standard. “Countries that are doing very well have intensive training. We need a good training structure and centres; for players development, we need coaches to create a very good pool of basic players. I want to ensure that our Indian coaches value and enhance themselves to play a very important role. We have been largely depending on foreign coaches. That’s fair enough as they have better knowledge than us and we must use their services. But for long period, I want our Indian coaches to be good as well. That will definitely increase the pool of players. The next step is that we want to increase the ranking base for the Indian players. Right now we have sixty rankings that we give at the national level. So, we are thinking about how to make it a hundred,” he elaborated.
The Arjuna Awardee underlined the significance of talent scouting and providing support as the third step. “ We need to strengthen the scouting of the talented players at an early age and give them all the support system though they might be under various coaches; like giving them knowledgeable nutritionists and physical trainers – to guide them what to do and what not to do,” explained Mehta while adding his observation of kids taking to soft drinks after playing a match in warm climate, as strictly ‘not advisable.’
CEO & Co-founder of Stupa Sport Analytics, Megha Gambhir reflected on the passion-fuelled journey she and her partner Deepak Malik embarked on, that has now remarkably brought WTT to India for at least five years.
“We are trying to focus on our passion to grow this sport. In India for a non-cricket sport, it becomes very hard to get sponsors on board. We thought we could change this narrative and get a profitable business to run out of it…We are happy to have WTT as our first event and we have also signed up other federations like Sweden, Norway and Brazil. In that sense, it’s been a good start, otherwise we have a lot to achieve,” said Megha when asked whether her sports-tech startup has achieved the target of driving the business aspect of table tennis.
Meanwhile, Kamlesh Mehta saluted the support from the government that has sparked the growth of Indian sports where the parents are getting encouraged to see the career opportunities for their children.
