CHENNAI: Former Commonwealth Games silver medallist Brett Clarke of Australia is tipped to become Massimo Costantini’s replacement as India’s new table tennis coach. After deliberations between Table Tennis Federation of India and Sports Authority of India (SAI), a list of three had been prepared with prominent names from Europe and Asia.
The Australian’s methods and experience went in his favour. The search was for someone who could communicate seamlessly in English and had experience of coaching. A former national champ, Clarke was part of the Aussie team for over 15 years. He was Australia’s national coach from 2009 to 2010 and also last year.
A majority of the contractual nitty-gritty has already been discussed with the Australian. The ball is now in SAI’s court. The only formality left is holding a Skype interview where final details, including salary, will be approved. The TTFI is hopeful that the process can be completed by the end of this year. The 46-year-old is currently in his hometown of Townsville.
“A few final boxes need to be ticked and once the interview is over, we can decide the way forward. We did not rush the process because we wanted someone with quality,” TTFI secretary MP Singh told this newspaper. Usually, the contract tenure is two years with the option of extending it depending on performance.
After Massimo’s successful reign (which included CWG and Asiad medals) came to an end in September, both TTFI and the sports ministry wanted to find the ideal candidate who could raise the profile of the sport. Even senior players were consulted.
SAI-TTFI talks have also yielded a new chief coach for the Coal India-SAI National Table Tennis Academy, which is coming up in Kolkata. Former PSPB Academy coach Yin Wei is expected to join the residential academy. The Chinese coach was responsible for nurturing the likes of Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai. He had left the job to return to his country for personal reasons.
Award for Manika
Manika Batra bagged the 2018 Breakthrough Star award at the ITTF Star Awards at Incheon. Former chief coach Massimo Costantini received the Star Coach award after CWG & Asiad success.