It’s difficult to quantify phrases like ‘giving back to the community’ from a sporting context. One athlete, though, satisfies the phrase. A Sharath Kamal, the ace Indian paddler who will step away from the table following this month’s World Table Tennis Star Contender event at Chennai.
For nearly two decades, Sharath was the past, present and future of the sport in India. An ever-present like the seasons, he was – it still feels weird writing about the 42-year-old in the past tense – there, doing his thing across competitions.
A national? He would invariably occupy the top-step of the podium. A Commonwealth Games? His neck would be adorned with multiple medals once every four years. Asian Games? A history-writing double in 2018. The Olympics? From a country still struggling to produce athletes capable of qualifying for the Games on merit, the Tamil Nadu man has been to five of these... an outlier any which way you want to look.
His greatest legacy though? It’s in multiple ways. When he came into the sport, forget a ceiling. Even a floor didn’t exist. He literally built a house, showing Indians it was possible to make a name in the sport. In 2025, there’s a floor, a ceiling and a steady stream of players who all cite ‘Sharath anna’ (elder brother) as the reason for them picking table tennis as their calling.
Away from the table, he also told Indians it was possible to lose with grace. In an interview he gave to this daily after coming back from the Birmingham Games in 2022, Sharath, unlike a lot of other athletes, spoke about why it was okay to be overlooked for the Khel Ratna award. “It’s the Khel Ratna alone which is missing,” he had said. “It’s for the best sportsperson across all sport. So, when you look at a Srikant Kidambi, World No 1... I’m World No 30. Then, Neeraj Chopra. Even before his gold at the Olympics, he had won Commonwealth Games, World juniors. So, how can I compare myself with them?
“When I look at (PV) Sindhu coming and telling me ‘anna, what you have done is fantastic’ or a Gopichand ‘man, I don’t understand how you have done it’... it shows I have truly earned my spot among the best sportspersons .”
True. But he also constantly kept at it as he kept reinventing himself. In the November of his life a few years ago, he also accepted the march of time. So he began eating better and started sleeping better. And spent more time in the gym than on the table, almost. The outcome? He was not only able to prolong his already decorated career but also showed younger paddlers the benefit of proper training.
But giving back, as far as Sharath is concerned, hasn’t ended with inspiring youngsters. If he showed them the way during his playing days, his second innings will also deal with more of the same. For, once his playing days are over, he will make the full-time switch from athlete to administrator. He now wants to explore roles like High Performance Director. He believes he has more to give in policy-making than in coaching. He’s already there in various roles (vice-chair of the Indian Olympic Association and co-chair of the Athletes Commission at the International Table Tennis Federation).
Why does this matter? In a sport like table tennis, where the issue of funding is paramount, you need people who know what it’s like to deal with officials on a daily basis, something Sharath has been doing for decades. In fact, table tennis, with proper support, could have emerged as a big winner from an Indian perspective following the Paris Games.
Because the Games saw India qualify two teams (men and women) for the first time ever. However, the expected fillip hasn’t come to pass. “It’s not a high priority sport,” Sharath had told this daily last year. “SAI has slowly started reducing funding. There are other sports with medal prospects, they are investing more on that.”
As Sharath enters the arena for one final time, it gives India one final opportunity to say kudos to a man, who above everything else, just tried. He won some battles, lost some battles but he always tried. He tried every day of the week for 20 years.