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Setting higher targets
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Sharath Kamal, winner of the National Table Tennis Championship, has set his sights on international tournaments
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The senior national table tennis champion A. Sharath Kamal with father and coach A. Srinivasa Rao. Pic by M. Moorthy
IN A dingy room of the Santhome Higher Secondary School (now Montfort Indoor Stadium) when everybody had long gone home, one boy stayed put. All alone, he was playing table tennis. With used balls. The boy, with a burning urge to achieve more, was practising hard for the Tamil Nadu State Championship. This was in the mid 1980s. He was none other than S. Raman who went on to become three-time national champion. "That was when we realised we have a champion in our midst," recalls former India coach Srinivasa Rao.
About 18 years later, Srinivasa Rao, who guided Raman in his formative years, is now a happy man. His son, Sharath Kamal, who won the coveted National Championship at Manesar, Haryana, recently, is beginning to show all the virtues that Raman possessed in his prime, namely determination and hard work. "It all boils down to individual interest. A national champion comes only once in a while. It involves a lot of hard work," says Srinivasa Rao, when asked why it took so long for someone from Chennai (after Raman) to win the coveted title.
Having just returned from practice at the Young Men's Indian Association Club, Mylapore, the 21-year-old Sharath says he has been at last relieved of the burden. "I can now concentrate on international tournaments. From this year, I will try to find a footing and try to prove myself there (abroad)." Though he hasn't decided which league to play, Sharath is keen on playing in countries such as Germany, Sweden and France.
Never the one to compromise on practice sessions, Sharath, employed with the Indian Oil Corporation, spends more than three hours in the morning and evening at the club apart from weight training. Fittingly, 2003 turned out to be profitable for him. He won the West Zone, South Zone, North Zone National-ranking tournaments, and finally capped them with the National Championship title. He also won the under-21 section of the Qatar (International) Open.
However, it was his first zonal title — West Zone at Rajkot defeating Raman in the final — that turned his career around. "Beating Raman (for the first time) was a milestone in my career," Sharath had said then. "It doubled my confidence."
Bursting into the senior State scene winning nine of the 10 State-ranking tournaments in 2001, Sharath's entry was a grand one and he has never looked back since. He credits his success largely to the role played by his father and uncle Muralidhara Rao. Srinivasa Rao recalls with gratitude the days when D.V. Sundar, Secretary, TNTTA, "fought with the TTFI" to include Sharath for the Asian Junior Championship in Chennai in 1999. "He (Sundar) was a motivating factor." Sharath then grew from strength to strength. After seeing Sharath in the 2001 Punjab National Games, TTFI Secretary-General, M.C. Chowhan, reportedly asked, "Have we seen anybody with so many strokes?"
However, S. Raman feels things will not be any easier for Sharath in 2004, given the fact that equally talented youngsters will be breathing down his neck. "It is going to be difficult."
Three-time National champion V. Chandrasekar says the win is a "very good augury and is sure to boost the game in the State." He feels that juggling international with national assignments should not be difficult for Sharath. Former National champion G. Jagannath says the win is "creditable." "He has broken away from Raman's shadows. After Chetan Baboor, he is the only player fit enough to play in the European circuit," says Jagannath, even as he keeps raving about Sharath's backhand drive which he feels is the best now. "If he keeps playing abroad, he will find his own solutions. The important thing is he should choose a tough circuit." The important thing, feels Jagannath, is the mental ability, how strong Sharath will be when he keeps losing in international tourneys.
The National Championship win is no doubt a big achievement in Sharath's fledgling career. But he has higher ambitions.
K. KEERTHIVASAN
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