Table Tennis in India

Table Tennis is a peculiar sport. Be it in office or in school or in college, there are many who play it as one of the favorite pastimes. Everyone plays it as an informal game, but few appreciate it as a sport. A National level or a State level table tennis player remains an unknown entity for most of the time whereas a District level cricketer gets celebrity status.

Table tennis is played by more than 300 million people around the world, but globally it hasn’t seen the commercial success of golf, lawn tennis or football. Table Tennis is the national sport of China and even today with so much success in Olympics in all the other so-called high profile sports, it is table tennis which is the most followed sport in China and the Chinese people take extra pride that China completely dominates table tennis at the Olympics.

There was a time when Indian table tennis players like Kamlesh Mehta, Monalisa Baruah, etc., were world beaters and they had achieved success at the International level. However, there was a gradual decline and by the time table tennis was incorporated as an Olympic sport for the first time in Seoul, 1988 there was not even a single world class player in India. India’s pathetic record in the Olympics speaks for itself; nobody has been able to go beyond the 2nd round. The team ranking of India is 30th in the world and no Indian player is in the top 50 of the world.

Table tennis is a sport where India should have done well. A sport which promised so much success was allowed to wither away. Like most of the sport, except Cricket, it is neglected in the country. The country lacks the adequate infrastructure to compete with the best. The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) should understand and make sure that adequate infrastructure, if not world-class; is a bare minimum to elevate the sport in India. 

India does not have a problem of lack of talent. India produces many talented young paddlers who achieve considerable success at the International level but fail to blossom into world beaters at the senior level courtesy poor structure of the game in the country. Former players are of the opinion that in order to nurture the young talents to play well at the senior level it is essential to educate the coaches. China and the European countries have proper structure in place to make sure the coaches are adequately educated in order to make a smooth transition of their table tennis players from junior to senior level.

Another problem is that Indian players lack physical fitness which is necessary at the top level. So physical fitness is one aspect in which the paddlers need to work harder as the game calls for high amount of flexibility and fast movements.