More positives as we look ahead!

 

Let me wish you all a wonderful season’s greetings and a prosperous and profitable New Year, in the real sense!

 

As we step into the New Year, let’s take a pledge to shake our memory off the negatives of the year gone by and just remember the positives; only those positives that will keep us motivated to perform still better in 2015 and also look beyond towards building a strong future.

 

First, let me deal with the positives. They are aplenty.

 

To begin with the latest nationals, the Cadet and Sub-Junior at Rajahmundry, it was a good departure for all of us to see a fresh and talented bunch emerging out of the event. The Manav Thakkars, Archana Kamaths, Vanshika Bhargavas, Jeho Himnakulhpuinghetas and the Alberto Lrrutas or the Parth virmanis, to name a few, in the long list of players that have warmed everyone’s heart and performed their best.

 

Now the sky is the limit for all of them and, if they continue the way they did in 2014, they can go places. That will be icing on the TTFI cake!

 

No doubt, the talent was always there, continuously knocking at the door and waiting at the doorstep. And those talented lots did walk in when the TTFI took the most unpleasant and yet a correct step to weed out those over-age players, who were committing a fraud on the sport thus denying a chance to the rightful ones.

 

The clean-up drive launched last year by the TTFI to oust such elements has not only yielded good results, but also thrown open a level-playing field for all players in age-group categories. As a result, apart from individual brilliances one could see teams like Goa, Rajasthan, UP, Telangana or, for that matter, Assam and a few other lesser states entering the knockout stages and their young paddlers carving out a special niche for themselves.

 

This holds good for the junior section as well and I must admit that we have achieved about 90 percent of results. We have some more way to go and by the end of 2015 we would have cleaned up the system to yield better and fruitful results.

 

I don’t want to sound despondent but all this could and should have been done at the state level, leaving TTFI to concentrate on its national and international calendar and devising future programmes rather than wasting time on the age-related issues. I must confess that at the TTFI we had to spend considerable time on solving this vital issue.

 

I must also admit that I have had the freedom and support from all our affiliates and, especially TTFI President Prabhat C. Chaturvedi, Treasurer M.P. Singh and the Executive Council members besides vigilant competition manager Ganeshan Neelakana Iyer and his referees’ team. Without their help, I would have found myself wanting.

 

To back to the season, it started with the Inter-Institutional Championships, sponsored by the Airports Authority of India at New Delhi. The AAI not only proved to be a good host but, through their various sport schemes, brought to the fore the best talent available. Their team members did well to bring laurels to the institution has employed them or offered scholarships.

 

Taking from there to the four national-ranking championships held, all were smooth riding for the TTFI as well as those who organized them turn-by-turn. There were several surprises—Gujarat’s Devesh Karia winning the title at Indore’s Central Zone and culminating the season with another title at Agra, G. Sathiyan winning in between at Gandhidham and at Durgapur all augured well for the future.

 

PSPB’s Abhisehk Yadav had the title come his way only to lose it to Karia very narrowly. They all made most of the absence of big guns like national champion Sanil Shetty, Soumyajit Ghosh, Anthony Amalraj and top world-ranked Indian Achinta Sharath Kamal who preferred playing in various leagues abroad. Shetty and Ghosh picked and chose their ranking events, throwing open opportunities for the others.

 

However, the reality will dawn on them when they, hopefully, come for the Senior Nationals to be held at Pondicherry between January 12 and 17. Not only will they find their national ranking far below and thus forced to play the qualification rounds in the individual events. Their seeding might also go for a six! That is a situation they should have been conscious of and avoided it.

 

Taking the cue, the TTFI is contemplating guidelines for the players to mandatorily appear in certain ranking and national championships to be eligible to be picked when we decide the Indiana team to play in international events. The sports ministry guidelines also support the theory of giving weight to those who have regularly participated in the nationals.

 

Of course, we have had limited success on the international front, the doubles silver at Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Otherwise, our senior paddlers were patchy as compared the juniors who won bagful of medals in various ITTF pro-tour events. The Asian Juniors at Mumbai was a great success and the emergence of Archana Kamath, who was picked to represent Asia at World Cadet Challenge at Barbados, was the sweetest thing to happen.

 

In fact, both Archana and Abhinaya Ramesh had qualified for the main draw from among the six paddlers who played the group leagues in Cadet section. Similarly, Ayhika Mukherjee was the lone Indian to make the quarterfinals in the sub-junior girls. The championships had helped our boys and girls to assess themselves and rub shoulders with the best of talent from the continent.

 

We also held the Road to Nanjing championships at Goa which was rewarding for the likes of Abhishek Yadav and Suthirtha Mukherjee who qualified for the Youth Olympics. Of course, Yadav had earlier won bronze medal at the Asian Youth at the same venue.

 

Another good aspect in 2014 was TTFI’s online entry system for tournaments, printing and issuing certificates based on that. It has been well received by one and all, especially the participants who now see their photos being printed on the certificates. But there are still some states which are in the habit of sending last-minute entries or entries by phone. We have allowed this practice in 2014 because some associations were yet to get the hang of the new system. I warn that the state units better pull up their socks and follow the guidelines of online entry strictly. There will be no more leniencies and once the entry date is close no entry will be entertained.

 

On that note, I end my musings and once again wish you all the best in Year 2015.

 

—Dhanraj Choudhary