Ping-Pongology: Table For Ten

The story behind the gradual, gratifying turn of Indian table tennis

- Qaiser Mohammad Ali

IN 1973, the legendary Manjit Singh Dua travelled around three days in train, from Delhi to Madras, to compete in the national table tennis championships. His determination, however, made light of his grime encrusted journey—he won the first of his three national singles titles. That was how things were for sporting stars of yore. If Dua were playing today, he would have made the journey in under three hours, in airline comfort. Revealingly, Dua, who won his titles between 1973 and 1979, plays a crucial role in making things easier for today’s players.

His efforts have borne fruit—the stand­ard of Indian table tennis has improved enormously. Today, there are two Indians in the top 50 of men’s rankings of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF)—Achanta Sharath Kamal (43rd) and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan (46th)— while the men’s team is ranked a credita­ble 11th. In the women’s category, Manika Batra (69th) and Mouma Das (117th) have the best ranks; the team is ranked 24th.

The image of the sport in the coun­try got a humongous fillip after the teams’ extraordinary performance at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Gold Coast, where India won an unpre­cedented eight TT medals, including Manika’s epoch­ making gold in women’s singles and two more in the men’s and women’s categories. Continuing their golden CWG roll, the men’s team finished 13th—up from 25th in 2016—at the World Team Championship this April though, with Indians still punch ­drunk with the CWG exploits, the players didn’t get enough kudos for that.