The Hindu : Sport : Sharath Kamal to play for Madrid club

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 04, 2006

Sport

Sport

Sharath Kamal to play for Madrid club

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Commonwealth Games gold medallist A. Sharath Kamal will be playing for a club in Madrid in the second half of the year.

Speaking to The Hindu on his return from Bremen, Germany, after spearheading the Indian challenge in the World team table tennis championship, Sharath revealed he would be in the Spanish capital from the end of August after the SAF Games in Colombo.

"For me to go up the world rankings, it is important that I test my limits against a variety of opponents and work on certain specific areas of my play. It is almost certain that I'll be playing in Madrid for around eight months," said Sharath, currently ranked 130 in the world.

Until April 2005, Sharath had played for Sweden's first division club ENIG, in Kalmar, for six months.

Disappointed at India's 35th place finish at Bremen, Sharath said, "We should have at least maintained our 28th place earned in Doha (in 2004). No doubt, the competition was much tougher this time in the second division where teams like Spain, Singapore, Bulgaria, Argentina, Turkey and Canada had a player of Chinese origin.

"Even the matches that we lost, we had our chances. But somehow, in spite of all the confidence after the Commonwealth Games, we could not give a better account of ourselves."

Shocking loss

After the first stage group league (where India finished third behind Singapore and Bulgaria), India went down surprisingly to England and had to play for 32-36 places. Here, India lost to Argentina but signed off with a win against Slovenia.

"Honestly, it hardly makes a difference whether you finish 28th or 36th, the truth of the matter is that we could not move into Division `A' (which has the top 24 teams of the world).

"Since we had beaten Singapore and England (in Melbourne on way to the team gold), we were confident of doing well. But for that, we had to reproduce the magic of Melbourne. Somehow, we fell short."

Sharath recalled his match against Singapore's Cai Xiao Li in which he rallied from 1-9 in the second game to complete a 4-11, 13-11, 15-13, 11-9 victory.

"This is the biggest comeback triumph in my career," said the 23-year-old about the match that helped India take a 1-0 lead in the crucial tie before losing 2-3.

"In Melbourne, we were down 0-2 and won by riding on the momentum we gained. But this time, once Singapore made it 2-2, the pressure was on Soumaydeep Roy who failed to repeat his Melbourne victory over Cai," said Sharath.

Candid

About his own performance, Sharath was not very pleased. "I pulled off a few good matches but there were times when my focus was not consistent," was the lanky champion's candid admission.

Sharath understands that he needs to work on his speed, physical fitness, defence and backhand while remaining delightfully aggressive.

"For me, my good physical condition adds to my mental strength. I need to take a step at a time and keep getting better," said Sharath, who feels very strongly that his best would come in the 2012 Olympics.

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