No table to serve, but keeping the cheer

Sunny Kaul

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 12

Forced to stay indoors due to the Covid-19 pandemic, star India table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal is helping his family with household chores, occasionally cooking for them — and also finding time to work on his fitness. The 37-year-old doesn’t want to be caught on the wrong foot when the lockdown ends.

“I have my workout routine in the morning, rest of the time I spend with family, cleaning up and doing household chores,” said the Chennai-based Sharath. “In the beginning, even I was like, ‘I need to do something. I need to be in touch with the game, work on my fitness’. Stuff like that. However, as the situation evolved it was very difficult.”

“The next part was fitness. It was very difficult, but then slowly and steadily I found myself. I have a routine now. I do work on my fitness regularly. Once the lockdown ends and we are able to start again, I don’t want to start from scratch. I want to be ready,” he pointed out.

The seasoned paddler was in ominous touch before the coronavirus brought the world to a standstill. He won the Oman Open on March 15, which should boost his current rank of world No. 38.

Family pulls

Sharath will turn 38 in July, and with the Tokyo Olympics postponed to 2021, it will not be easy for him to maintain his form until then. However, the battle-hardened veteran is in no mood to let his guard down. “Not really,” Sharath replied when asked whether age would be a factor for him in the Tokyo Games. “At this point in time I am playing my best table tennis… There is no additional burden due to age.”

“But of course motivation is an issue because I had the plan to go for this Olympics, prepare for it, so I again need to find the right kind of motivation…To go for the tournaments, travelling, staying away from the family,” he added. “That is the most difficult part because sacrifices are not only made by me but my entire family. It is easy for me to say I have an Olympics and I need to go, but my three-year-old son won’t understand that, my daughter won’t understand that. So it’s not the age, it is these factors which affect you.”

‘The situation is indeed causing stress’

Sharath Kamal conceded that the current situation is taking a toll on the players’ psyche. “It does affect a lot, mentally. I can understand a lot of people, not just sportspersons but other people also, will be finding it difficult to cope with the situation. Yes, it is very hard, but we have no other way to deal with this pandemic. We just have to stay indoors,” said the poster boy of Indian table tennis. “Not just table tennis, but it is with all other sports. We prepared our mind and body in a way that we wanted to be ready for July 2020. But now, it is not July 2020, probably it will be July 2021… We are still not sure about it,” he said. “…preparing for the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympics add a lot of pressure. It’s a major event, a lot of people are looking forward to doing well and qualify. So there is a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress people go through. And now all of a sudden, we will have to bear that stress for one more year,” Sharath added. “We still don’t know what will be the qualification process, we don’t know what will be the tournament schedule, nothing is clear at this point in time. And if you don’t have the clarity, your mind won’t be at peace!”