Table Tennis landscape has changed drastically in India: Kamlesh Mehta

April 6 was celebrated as World Table Tennis Day across the world and one of Indiarsquos most decorated paddler and Olympian Kamlesh Mehta 60 believes Indiarsquos TT landscape has seen a paradigm shift from his playing daysThe eighttime national table tennis champion who started playing TT in the 1970s at Matunga Gymkhana in Mumbai stated that the sport in India has been constantly evolving and it has been goodldquoTT landscape has changed drastically in India The sport has seen constant changes and it has been good The major change is that today in India there are four menrsquos players who are in the Top 100 rankings And in womenrsquos there are two players in the Top 100Earlier we only had one player in the Top 100 so this a major changerdquo Mehta told middaycom ldquoSecondly the amount of exposure we had at our time and the exposure now is very different Thirdly there are players coming up in all categories like seniors youth junior as well as cadet In the U12 to below there are around 40 players who rank in the Top 100 Itrsquos not just that your main players are doing well but there is a chain of players right from the age of 12 who are doing well at the international level And this is down to the exposure they are getting These are the major factors that have led to a paradigm shiftrdquo said the expaddler who represented India in seven world championships eight Asian championships two Asian Games four South Asian Federation games and two OlympicsThe Arjuna awardee 1985 stressed the fact that professional roundtheyear coaching is also playing a major role in helping the growth of playersldquoNowadays a lot of roundtheyear training camps take place for players and there are camps before tournaments Then there is support from the government and involvement of corporates and NGOs who support individual players so that they focus on excelling at the international levelrdquo the former India captain saidldquoDuring our time the objective of most players was to get into the Indian team In that respect I see a major change now Now even a junior player wants to do well at the international levelrdquo said Mehta who is also a Government of India appointed National Observer for TTIn the current environment for any sport and its players to flourish a franchisebased league is crucial Indian TT too has its own professional leaguemdashUltimate Table Tennis UTT launched in 2017 Mehta reckons UTT has provided the required impetus for the sport and the players to reach new heights in the countryldquoUTT has helped Indian players get exposure of playing against foreign players and give them the belief that they can beat them It has also made India a TT destination Earlier foreign players had reservations of travelling to India When it came to TT India was not seen as an important destinationrdquo said Mehta who is the Director of UTT For Mehta the UTTrsquos biggest achievement is the fact that Indian players have brought about a fear factor among the worldrsquos elite paddlers ldquoEarlier if there was an Indian player in the draw they were not concerned Now Indian players are taken seriously by foreign paddlersrdquo he explainedMehta who participated in two Olympics 1988 1992 backed the current India TT team led by Achanta Sharath Kamal to shine at the upcoming Tokyo GamesldquoWe have a strong and experienced team for the Tokyo Games Sharath Kamal has been playing at the top level for a decade now G Sathiyan and Manika Batra have done well all over the world So they have the potential on the given day But while they will be working hard other players too will be preparing well toordquo Mehta remarkedAccording to Mehta this is the best ever team to represent the nation at the Olympics but the draw will be crucialldquoThey have a good chance but the draw is very important There are certain players against whom you are not very comfortable and that matters a lot Now we have got the best of our best players who have qualified for the Olympics Of all the Olympic teams this one have the best chance to do wellrdquo Mehta signed off