‘Feel responsible to help younger generation’: Sharath Kamal

India table tennis legend Achanta Sharath Kamal 41 is undergoing mixed feelings While he will be a tad disappointed as skipper of the Chennai Lions to lose the final of franchisebased Ultimate Table Tennis UTT Season 4 to Goa Challengers by a close 78 margin in Pune he is very excited to spearhead Indiarsquos challenge for the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou China September 23 to October 8And having achieved a historic double bronze in the last edition of the continental showpiece event at Jakarta Indonesia the veteran paddler is keen to repeat the act if not better it in ChinaThe 10time National champion and seventime Commonwealth Games gold medallist took time off from his preparation for the Asian Games for a special edition of middayrsquos Meet Your Icon where he spoke in detail on topics ranging from how he picked up a TT racquet at the age of three to that epic moment of standing shouldertoshoulder with Asiarsquos best TT stars on the Jakarta podiumEdited excerpts from the interviewWersquove learnt that your father introduced you to the game Tell us about those initial days when you couldnrsquot even reach the table being a kidMy father and uncle who were statelevel table tennis players began coaching back in the 1980s when they felt that as players they couldnrsquot develop more They wanted to stay in the game and thought that coaching would be something theyrsquod like to do and also earn a livelihood I was born in 1982 and was almost three when I started accompanying them to the clubs in the evenings I probably started playing at the age of four but I couldrsquove been two when I started off with a racquet in my hand So I would just go to the club every day and enjoy hitting the ball with other kids The assistant coaches and older guys would carry me up and I would sit on the table and knock balls I still have a lot of them coming to me and saying lsquoI carried you in the beginning when you were a kidrsquo Slowly by the time I was eight or nine I started taking a liking to the sport and wanted to play By the time I was 15 or 16 I had to decide whether I wanted to go pro professional PostClass XI I decided to take up commerce and play TTYou are six feet one Does being tall make it tougher as a paddler because you have to bend more at the tableYes I always need to push myself to stay bent and stay lower so that I can shuffle faster The game is one of the quickest in the world so I need to be quick but being taller doesnrsquot help that much When you are shorter itrsquos much better Thatrsquos why the Chinese are good at this sport At the same time I enjoy a wider reach and can get to the net easily In fact one of my best shots are executed when the ball is closer to the net and I get in there and whack it with my forehand I can use my height for that particular shotYoursquove played in the German Bundesliga and the Swedish league Could you tell us about those experiencesWhile I was growing up Chetan Baboor former national champion was playing in Sweden He was a student of my father and uncle He told them that if Sharath needs to do well at the international level Europe is the place he needs to be Europe had good infrastructure that had been running for many years so I had to go there Once I became national champion they table tennis federation and Indian government gave me permission to go and train there Chetan helped me find a club Now itrsquos the other way around with the UTT bringing in the worldrsquos best players to India Twenty years ago I went in search of this in Europe while UTT has brought that for the youngsters to IndiaAlso Read EXCLUSIVE Aiming to bring out my best at Asian Games Sathiyan GnanasekaranJust like how the franchisebased Hockey India League and the Indian Premier League have helped our hockey players and cricketers respectively tells us how Ultimate Table Tennis is helping our Indian paddlersIt is not just for the youngsters it is also for the senior players The UTT has given a lot of confidence as we Indian players are able to train with some of the best players in the world We can talk to them dine with them and then hopefully beat them Today we have come to a level where we donrsquot just play against these players abroad but also beat them or come close to beating them often When UTT started in 2017 I was the flagbearer for India All the other Indians were not so strong UTT gave them the right exposure It gave them the right confidence to get to the International level Once we started beating a couple of foreign players in India we thought if we can do it here we can do it abroad too In the first season G Sathiyan and Manika Batra played well to rise in the ranks The next season Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath did very well The third season Sutirtha Mukherjee did very well And this season we have seen Diya Chitale doing well Archana and Manav tooMentoring has been an important part of your career over the last few years Tell us about thatI feel responsible to help the younger generation because as I grew up I realised I wasted quite some time to get where I wanted Time is very crucial to any sportsperson A playerrsquos shelf life is very short at the elite level so I always feel the need to groom youngsters who will take my place up in the coming years People keep asking me when Irsquom going to retire I really donrsquot know Irsquom still able to play and I feel I can still offer a lot of expertise to the younger players I have been helping the younger players throughout my career Even at the UTT many players come up to me for advice or to find a solution A short chat with them helps them gain confidence and clarityYoursquove achieved almost equal success in doubles as you have in singles What do you enjoy more and whyDoubles came naturally to me especially in my earlier years Irsquom a team guy I grew up in a team environment and thatrsquos why I like to perform my best in a team In doubles Irsquove always been doing well In 2010 we won the first gold medal at the CWG I adapt to situations well and make my partners very comfortable and not let them be dependent on me When we were playing in Birmingham 2002 I was playing mixed doubles with Sreeja Akula She was so overwhelmed too nervous since she was playing with her idol her Sharath bhaiyya She didnrsquot want to miss and didnrsquot want to make any mistakes so she was not going to take any chances and that made it very difficult for me She needs to help me set up too Of course I will set up the game and try and finish some balls when I can but in doubles you canrsquot clap with one hand So both of us need to gel well so her coach and I spent time making her understand that and in the end we had a fantastic resultYou have won seven CWG gold medals Is there a favourite or special one among thoseItrsquos difficult to say which one is special In 2006 Melbourne when I won it I was the new kid on the block long hair and stuff From there getting onto 2010 another gold medal in home conditions at the New Delhi CWG There was a lot of pressure at home and a lot of support too but you had to deliver Then 16 years apart I won three more gold medals I didnrsquot expect to win three but it turned out to be a dream run for me So itrsquos tough to pick a favouriteTell us about the feeling when you won that historic team bronze and the mixed doubles bronze at the 2018 Jakarta Asian GamesThe Asian Games are equivalent to the Olympics as table tennis is completely dominated by Asian countries There are a few European countries but itrsquos dominated by Asians When we won in Jakarta in 2018 we believed in ourselves We knew that with a favourable draw and all three of us doing well on that particular day there was always an outside chance Then we got the favourable draw and got Japan and Sathiyan Harmeet and I had all beaten some of them So we delivered With that win I was very confident and we went on to win the mixed doubles bronze too A lot of people didnrsquot expect this success These medals have special value It was the first time in 62 years that India had won a medal at the Asian Games I felt great while standing on the podium with the Chinese players because now we also were among the best players in the world Thatrsquos a lot of valueIndian TT players have still not reached professional heights like badminton players Is there a funding issue or is there not enough support from the governmentIf you compare badminton to table tennis then badminton had Pullela Gopichand who was a Top 10 in the world Prakash Padukone was among the Top 10 in the world and probably even World No 1 at one stage But in table tennis we are around 200 I was the lone player in the Top 100 for the last 15 years Wersquove never had players in the worldrsquos Top 70 I was the first player to break into the Top 30s Sathiyan got better reaching 24 The comparison is not fair because in Indian badminton when you get introduced to the international rankings you are directly in the Top 100 or 150 However when a junior TT player gets introduced to the rankings we start around 400 in the world So we TT players have come a very long way in the last 10 years In fact wersquove had greater success than badminton We donrsquot have Olympic medals but while badminton players have climbed from 50 to the Top 5 we have come from 400 to 40You recently spoke about the need for a High Performance Director in Indian TT Also there has been no coach for five years now Are these factors hampering Indian TTIt doesnrsquot look like it because we are still playing well It also gives the federation an excuse that these guys are still doing well laughs But all said and done we need a coach Not just for us we need a panel of coaches who can work from the top to bottom for all age categories so that the grooming happensmdashthe transition from U17 to U19 and U19 to the senior level So we need coaches a structure and a High Performance Director Irsquom sure the current federation is looking at this Hopefully wersquoll have a good set up in the next few monthsDo you prefer an Indian or a foreign coachWe need to have one foreign coach All the Indian coaches have players and run clubs These coaches donrsquot get professional contracts in the national team so since hersquos not being paid it could give rise to conflict of interest So if you have a foreign coach he will be neutral After that you can groom a few Indian coaches and then build a structure around that But in the beginning you need foreign expertise After the bronze at the 2018 Asian Games do the Chinese take us seriouslyVery much Before the Asian Games we had a training camp in China One day we got permission to train with their national team The Chinese players were not taking us seriously But then we played some matches with them and though we lost the way we played and seeing how close we got to them they actually stood in a line and actually clapped for us Now the Chinese players know all of us by our names Before that they never cared about Indian players but now they know the players and the style we playThis will be your fifth Asian Games Is there a targetWe would like to defend those two bronze medals and if possible add one or two Also two events havebeen addedmdashthe menrsquos doubles and womenrsquos doubles In singles I lost a very close match in the last 16 So the draw will be crucialHow is your training shaping upI started my preparation for the Asian Games at the end of March Thatrsquos my singular focus So March April and May it was more about the foundation building my body and building the base June onwards I started focusing on getting fitter The UTT is a fantastic practice ground Irsquom happy that it UTT happened at this point so we can prep ourselves for the Asian Games We are in the final phase of our preparation now This last phase is more of a match phase trying to peak at the right time Irsquom not at an age where I can peak and stay there for three to four months So I need it to go according to plan