Ever since the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) came out with the announcement they would update the April rankings by the 15th of this month, A Sharath Kamal had been checking the website daily. When the list finally came out on Thursday, the Padma Shri awardee became India’s highest ranked paddler at World No 31. He surpassed G Sathiyan to occupy the slot.But he doesn’t want to hear anything of that sort. “It is not a competition between Indians. We are all playing to make the country proud. I’m just glad that the risk I took by going and playing in Oman despite the coronavirus threat bore fruit,” Sharath told this daily.
He was even more enthused about the fact that India moved up to No 8 in the world team rankings, the highest they have ever been. “It shows that all of us as a whole have really improved. As long as we keep going in the right direction, results will follow in the future.”But considering the team improvement, there is this lingering feeling of a golden opportunity wasted when India failed to qualify as a team for the now-postponed Tokyo Olympics. “My daughter actually asked me when I was going through the rankings why we were not in the list despite being higher placed than quite a few who made the cut. I just sighed and left it at that.”
While the 37-year-old has not been too bothered about rankings in his career, this was special, considering that he can claim to be the one who won the last ITTF tournament before the COVID-19 threat disrupted the calendar. Also, any validation in rankings means he can continue to play without being reminded of thinking about the future.
“If I suddenly go down the ladder, people will start reminding me of my age and that will spell doom,” he said laughing. “I’m just glad that I’m maintaining my standard over the years. I was World No 30 last year. Maybe if I improve upon that as well, I can tell my wife to allow me to keep playing for some more time!”.