Lucknow: With a three-stage plan in place,
Indian paddlers would be fully prepared for the Commonwealth
Games in Delhi next year, feels national coach Bhawani
Mukherjee.
Mukherjee, chief coach of Sports Authority of India (SAI)
for table tennis spearheading the task of preparing Indian
paddlers for the Delhi Games, said the final list of probables
would be shortlisted early next year.
"We are following a three-stage formula for next year's
Commonwealth Games. This is not an overnight process but a
long term strategy. We should wait for some more time before
it starts producing results," Mukherjee told agency.
"Currently, we are working on 20 men and 17 women
probables. After the January National Championships in
Guwahati, this number would come down to 12 and 10
respectively. Then we will start special training with the
entire focus on the Commonwealth Games," he added.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Asian Championships
here, the veteran coach emphasised the role of basic skills
like physical fitness in the sport.
"Basic aspects like physical fitness and technical
accuracy are being taken care of now. During the China camps
also, players were mainly focused on the basic aspects because
table tennis is a skill sport," he said.
"In the second stage, we will rectify their technical and
tactical problems. Then the risk factor trainings would come
in the third stage," Mukherjee added.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal was the lone good
performer for the hosts while rest of the Indians kept finding
the Chinese and Singaporeans too hot to handle in the ongoing
event's team competitions.
The Patiala-based coach, who was not satisfied with the
players' show, admitted that Indians have to raise the
standard of their game by several notches to meet the
expectations.
"I agree, performance of some of our main players in the
recent tournaments were not upto the mark. They need to
fine-tune their game. I think, it would be a worry if their
game doesn't improve even during the final phase of training
next year," he said.
"But at the same time young players like Divya Deshpande,
Pooja Sahashrabudhe and Devesh Karia have showed promise. We
can also consider them to improve the bench strength," said
Mukherjee, who training the paddlers along with foreign coach
Massimo Constantini of Italy.
"We have a few international tournaments, including the
World Championships and Pro Tour Indian Open next year. The
objective is to pull off some good wins in team events in
order to secure a higher seeding in the Delhi Games,"
Mukherjee said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 18:01