Soon after winning his second gold at the Commonwealth Games, India’s star paddler Achanta Sarath Kamal told The Indian Express that playing more ITTF Pro Tour meets and with more training abroad, he could be better-prepared to take on the world’s best. Well, Kamal was only echoing the sentiments of hundreds of Indian sportspersons.

Fact remains, that the likes of Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and Subhajit Saha - the gold medal-winning trio in the men’s team competition at Melbourne -probably get more exposure in a year than the likes of Kamlesh Mehta, Manjit Dua or Sujay Ghorpade got throughout their careers. Chetan Baboor showed the way, when he regularly played in the Swedish club circuit. Since then, the Indians have spent time abroad, training and playing in Sweden and Germany.

Kamal probably has a point when he says that the players would be better off playing more ITTF Pro-Tour meets, where the best in the world take part. The number of meets has been increased from 17 to 22 next year and Kolkata will get to host one of them. The Indians will at least be certain of taking part in that one.

The government has put the game on the priority sports’ list, but there has always been a problem in sanctioning the players’ trips abroad. It’s expected that with this performance, the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) will push the case of players’ foreign training and playing trips.

The Indian men’s next target will be to make it to the 24-team elite group in the forthcoming world championship in Bremen from April 24 to May 1. The women are already there, and given the kind of form the men are in, it would be unwise to bet against them reaching that target.

... contd.