By Bharat Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi : India went to the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games as underdogs and they won their first gold when their men’s table tennis team beat fancied Singapore 3-2 in the final. This time around in New Delhi they are favourites at home and world No. 41 Sharath Kamal has an enormous task to see not only the team retain the gold but also the singles title in the Oct 3-14 Games.
Besides the gold in men’s singles and team events, the women’s team also notched up a bronze in Melbourne.
The expectations are high, but it is not going to be easy for India. England, Nigeria and Singapore have the potential to stop Kamal and his team from getting to the top.
Table Tennis is an optional sport in the Commonwealth Games and was introduced in the 2002 Manchester Games where India won three bronze medals.
The competition scheduled at the Yamuna Sports Complex Oct 4-14, will have 21 medals at stake in seven events– singles, doubles, mixed doubles, team (men and women).
Kamal will again have the support of Subhajit Saha and Soumyadeep Roy, who were there in Melbourne. Anthony Amalraj, the second highest ranked Indian at 181, and Sourav Chakroborty are the new faces in the squad.
The players to watch out for in the men’s category will be World No. 17 Gao Ning of Singapore, Segun Toriola, the gold medallist at the Manchester Games, and Englishman Paul Drinkhall.
“It will be much tougher this time. Singapore’s team has been bolstered with the entry of the Chinese immigrant, Gao Ning, who is ranked higher than me. They had a strong team in Melbourne itself but now with the new player they are stronger,” Kamal told IANS.
“Apart from them, England has been playing well lately. Toriola is also coming to Delhi.”
India’s women’s team is led by Mouma Das, the highest ranked at 204, and it has veteran Poulomi Ghatak, Shamini Kumaresan, Mamta Prabhu and Madhurika Patkar.
The women’s team had won the team bronze in Melbourne.
And a podium finish in New Delhi will be tough with power house Singapore, England and Australia being favourites to share the medals amongst them.
Singapore, with Tianwei Feng and Yuegu Wang, have two top 10 players of the world and are also the reigning world champions.
India’s chief coach Massimo Constantini believes the team’s chances will depend a lot on the draw, especially in the women’s section.
“A lot will depend on the draw. If we meet Singapore in the women’s quarterfinal then it is goodbye for us. Similarly in the men’s event, we would like to face Singapore not before the finals,” said Constantini.
“The preparation ahead of the Games has been good. We have got whatever we asked for. The foreign camps in China have helped the players tremendously. I expect the men’s team to defend their title and the women to produce a special performance.”
(Bharat Sharma can be contacted at [email protected])