NEW DELHI: Dates for the national table tennis championships have not yet been confirmed while the International Table Tennis Federation is still in talks over resumption of events. This uncertainty regarding dates has led to delays in the plans of India's ace paddler A Sharath Kamal.
Initially, he wanted to go and play in the Champions League for his club side Borussia Dusseldorf. But visa issues put paid to his hopes. Now he is trying to go to his club for an extended training trip before getting into competitive mode.
"I'm in touch with the embassy. The interview dates should be in the coming days. I would like to play in the nationals and then leave. Let's see what happens," he told this daily.
But in the intervening period, most Indian paddlers were training at home after the completion of the national camp in Sonepat on December 8. So they decided to get together in Chennai and resume training in a mini camp.
Manav Thakkar (U-21 World No 1), Manush Shah, Telangana's current U-21 national champion Snehit Suravajjula and Arjun Ghosh among seniors while D Vishwa (India U-18 No 1) and Abhinav V (TN No 3) are the paddlers along with Sharath who are training in the city.
"After the camp concluded, all the players were discussing about the need to practice together as we had a productive time together. So they decided to come down here and currently the focus is on match situations as during camp we had worked a lot on the technical aspects. We have a good, diligent group and it should be a good sparring session," Sharath added.
The camp will be on for ten days, but it might get extended if players are willing to continue. Sharath's father and Dronacharya awardee A Srinivasa Rao, uncle and veteran coach Muralidhara Rao and brother Rajath Kamal have taken charge of the coaching aspect while two of the outstation players have even been put up in Sharath's apartment.
The World No 32 has spoken to TOPS regarding sending a physio for the camp. Safety is also being taken care of with everyone adhering to rules, not stepping out unnecessarily. "This will come in handy as the nationals are around the corner. Match training should help in eliminating rustiness."