Poster boy of Indian table-tennis, Achanta Sharath Kamal, who was honoured with the prestigious Padma Shri award at the hands of President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier this year, is now preparing himself for the World Championship to be held in Budapest, Hungary from April 21- 28. At the age of 36, Sharath is playing some of his finest table tennis and is hoping to win a Olympic medal in Tokyo 2020. Before leaving for a training camp to be held in Denmark, Sharath caught up with Joel Andrade to share his thoughts on the upcoming events, the three generations of players he has led, his career threatening injury and more.
“We’re raring to go at the World Championship. We’re on our way to Denmark for a preparatory camp and I’m sure we’ll put up a good show. We also have the Olympics coming up, and I’m confident of putting up a good show,” the Arjuna Awardee declared.
THREE GENERATIONS
Having carried India’s flag for over a decade, Sharath believes that with every generation, India has become stronger and can soon beat powerhouses like China. “During my early days, it was Subhajit Saha and Soumyadeep Roy. Then it was Sanil Shetty and Anthony Amalraj and now I have Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai. Manav Thakkar too is just taking off in the senior category. All of them have the capability and passion. But what’s important is that with every generation, India has become stronger. When I was taking off, India were somewhere around 33, today we’re ranked 13th. Hopefully, we can compete against China soon,” Sharath, who singles out the 2006 CWG Gold medal as his most memorable title, said.
2018 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Sharath believes the eight-medal haul at the 2018 Commonwealth Games is India’s biggest breakthrough yet and expects the team to carry on the momentum. “We had a lot of pressure going into the 2018 Commonwealth Games -- we had won just a silver in the previous edition (men’s doubles with Amalraj). The moment we won the men’s and women’s team event, lot of pressure was eased off and our confidence skyrocketed. From there on, we played some fantastic table tennis and went on to win eight medals. It was by far our best CWG performance. Manika Batra in particular was phenomenal, beating the world No 4 twice.”
Sharath, who holds the record of winning nine senior national titles, attributes this success to the professionally run TTFI, who used their funds in the right manner and the UTT league, which gave the Indian paddlers the much needed boost of playing some of the world’s best at home. “There were lots of factors that played a role in our success. The federation worked very professionally, giving each player different plans and goals. In 2016, four players represented India at the Olympics for which we received more funding, which was used in the right manner. That was also the time the foreign coach came in. The Ultimate Table Tennis league also began around the same time -- we started beating the world’s best here and it helped us mentally,” Sharath said.
INDIA WITHOUT A COACH
India have been without a coach for some time now after Australia’s Brett Clarke and China’s Yin Wei rejected the offer to come to India for personal reasons and Sharath feels that this might affect India’s chances at the upcoming World’s and Olympics. “We don’t have a coach for some time now and it is affecting us. It’s not very easy to do all the planning and administrative work -- the coach normally does this. We are hopeful that in a month’s time all this will be sorted out.”
PLAYING ABROAD
Sharath has been plying his trade in Europe for the last fifteen years and is of the opinion that the country’s paddlers must go overseas to get the right exposure and stay in the right shape. “I have been in Europe for the last 15 years, playing in Sweden, Spain and now Germany. The league system there is fantastic. We get good sparring partners, play lot of good matches, get quality training -- this gives us good exposure and we’re always in match mode. When we go for Pro Tours or the World Championships, we’re always well prepared and that helps. I would advise our Indian playersto play in Europe,”
Sharath asserted.
INDIAN COACH OR
FOREIGN COACH?
Sharath believes that the senior team’s support staff should include an Indian coach as well as a foreign coach in order to get the best out of the country’s paddlers. “I would say we need a foreign coach as well as a Indian coach. The Indian coach would know all our history and background while the foreign coach would be more in tune with what’s happening in the international circuit and maybe a little bit more well versed with the technical know-how,” the greatest table tennis player India has ever produced, stated.
BIGGEST WIN YET . .
Sharath has beaten many players ranked in the top 10 in his two-decade long career but insists that beating Koki Nova is right up on the charts. “I have beaten few top 10 players in my career but the game against Koki in the 2018 Qatar Open is by far the best match I have played. My strategy was to go for power and it worked brilliantly. The score lines too were pretty dominating considering the fact that he was world No 7 at that point.”
CAREER THREATENING
INJURY
In 2015, Sharath had a career-threatening hamstring injury and wasn’t sure if he would ever play the sport again. However, after being operated and training with physio-therapists for a while, Achanta has returned to playing his finest table tennis. “I was very depressed and wasn’t quite sure if I would ever come back to play. At that point of time, I didn’t know the way forward. I was operated in Germany and then I started working with the physio-therapists there. I’m really happy that I found the right set of people to help me, and I believe I am playing some of my best table tennis now,” the world No 37, stated.
“The age is going up. If one is able to keep himself fit even at my age, with the experience we have, I think we are at an advantage. Now I’m working on my fitness more than I ever have. In tennis, we can look at Federer, in cricket we have Dhoni and so on,” Sharath said.
MATCH PREPARATION
Achanta Sharath, who dedicates eight hours to the sport -- six on the table and two to conditioning -- starts his match preparation more than 24 hours in advance. “We begin our preparation a day in advance -- we look at videos of our opponent and make strategies. We generally come out with two game plans -- in case things go wrong -- plan A and plan B. On match days, we remain cool and stress free. Two hours prior to our match, we report at the venue and start practicing,” Sharath said.
EARLY DAYS
Sharath began his table tennis career more out of compulsion than choice at the age of four, but once his passion took over, his graph escalated quickly and is now the country’s most decorated table tennis player. “I started playing table tennis at the age of four under the guidance of my father Srinivasa Rao and uncle Muralidhara Rao. Since they were coaches even before I was born, I entered the sport more out of compulsion than choice. That being said, I soon fell in love with the game and remain passionate till today. Soon, I started representing TN in the under 12, 14, 17 categories. However, I never played for Junior India. I had my first national ranking in 2002, when I lost the final to Raman. From there my graph escalated quickly. In 2003, I became the senior national champion, in 2004 I became the first Indian to win a CWG gold medal and in the same year I played the Olympic Games.”
“I still remember waking up my father every morning to go for practice. At that point of time my mom used to tell me, ‘dad is tired, let him sleep, he got late last night.’ But then my dad used to say ‘no no no, the kid is interested, it’s okay. We should do our part to help him,” Sharath said in conclusion.
