Rise of Indian table tennis leading to emergence of sporting icons

There is something or a lot of things being done right in India today when it comes to sports administration—as sporting achievements in a diverse array of sports disciplines like say Table Tennis at the global level show, with an almost podium level finish at the Olympics in one of the fastest racket sports perhaps second only to squash.

- LAKSHMANA VENKAT KUCHI

Elated at the advance of Indian men, and more important women table tennis stars, bursting onto the world of table tennis with victories against the best in the world is the greatest advertisement of dreaming big, and working hard to achieve them with a clear cut focus, national table tennis coach Sourav Chakraborty, a celebrated player himself, believes that the success formula was a combination of spotting the right talent and encouraging it to bloom and become world beaters.

That's why, of late, Indian paddlers are in the news for the right, and happy reasons, beating the top ranked players in the world. And more often than not, Indian players are holding their own against the best in the business—say a Mannika Batra or a Sharat Kamal, a Sreeja Akula or a Ahikiya Mukherjee putting it across their rivals on the other side of the table without even bothering to be bothered about their reputation, ranking on status in the TT world.

At the Olympics, winning two matches against China and beating world number one and two, is something that dreams are made of. You can imagine, I was fortunate to be present there with the team at Paris, said Sourav, who himself is a celebrated national and international player. At present he works as a national coach, assisting Massimo Costantini, the head coach of Indian TT team. He believes that it was government support, and less of interference, introduction of well-meaning schemes that tapped the right talent and groomed them, and the emergence of private sector in actively engaging with the sports and sportspersons as the reason for doing well across sporting disciplines and more so in the table tennis arena.