Many years ago, Karnataka boasted of top-of-the-line table tennis players who made waves in the National circuit. Right from the days of Kabad Jayant and Usha Sunderraj to Bona Thomas John, GK Vishwanath, CR Anand, Chetan Baboor, Archana Vishwanath and the like. With these names and many more, who have come out of the clubs of Karnataka, one thing was sure -- there was always someone who could challenge the strong teams from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and powerhouse Bengal. Clearly, years of neglect have ensured that this hegemony is now in tatters. Karnataka is a spent force in table tennis.

The set of office bearers have been the same for some time now. President CVL Sastry has been at the helm from the early 80s. Though he has come up with financial help from his own pockets at times, management is the issue here. There was even the ever-familiar problem of factionalism about five years back in the KTTA. Things were settled with the timely intervention of the secretary general of the Table Tennis Federation of India Mool Chand Chawhan. But thereafter the situation changed little. If anything, it only worsened.

No accountability

Finally, when Chawhan came to Bangalore a few months ago for the general body meeting, he found that the accounts were not in place. The KTTA executive committee was dissolved and an ad-hoc committee was formed with chairman J Alexander, president CVL Sastry and secretary GN Satyanarayana in it. The others in the committee are Dayanand Pai, R Nandan, KS Vasanth Kumar, Bona Thomas John, GK Vishwanath, Harish Putran, Narayana Swamy, Ramesh Shastry, Upadhya and Jagadish Chandra. Karnataka Olympic Association is also represented.
When Chawhan came for the general body meeting, what did not go down well with him was that accounts were not being maintained properly. The body needed to be registered after amendments to the by-laws, which are decades old. Moreover, there are inactive associations that have not been paying the affiliation fees to the KTTA. Naturally, with the situation prevailing, Chawhan hardly thought it the time to conduct elections. The message from Chawan was clear – no elections till the mess is cleaned up.

"I have told them that they need to keep a check on the district associations. They need to give the registration fee. And tournaments in the districts are to be conducted only by clubs which are affiliated to the district associations," said Chawhan from New Delhi.

The anguish could be felt when he said: "I am upset by the state of affairs. All need to cooperate and do something for the sake of the game. There is no ego here. Sit and work towards getting glory back for Karnataka table tennis."

Said Bona Thomas: "Till accounts are settled and fresh elections are conducted, the ad-hoc committee will continue. However, the problem is that due to this sorry situation no money will come in. No meetings are being held and we are unable to do anything. We want a free hand for development activities and for the conduct of National and international level tournaments," lamented John.
‘Change guard’
Vishwanath felt no different. "People need to change but nothing changes. It is a pathetic situation. I say give people like former players a term to make a change," he said. "Unless a group of people who are really interested do not take over, there is no way to promote the game. The game needs to be taken forward."
Adds another former player Vasanth Kumar: "It is a pathetic state. Our people are not doing anything. Give former players like us a chance to run the affairs for a year and we will show all what we can do."

The saving grace is that State-ranking tournaments are still going on, though the number of tournaments has gone down drastically. The State Championship is another formality that just happens but at the Nationals, Karnataka are among also-rans. The last someone won a medal was a bronze in the cadets doubles event (N Poojitha and Bhavana Murthy) in the Nationals about two years ago. But where is the quality? Why are we not producing players who can keep Karnataka's flag flying high? If this situation continues, the sport will just sink deeper and deeper into the mire.

Playing table tennis is not lucrative or glamorous. Youngsters are shying away from the game. They would rather study well and get good jobs than take up a dying sport. There is no doubt about the availability of talent in the State. But no diamond shines without being polished. Time for the people in power to change.