“Gujarat will host world-level TT tournament in near future: GSTTA president Pramod Chaudhary
Strap: Expecting two Gujarat paddlers in Indian team for Paris Olympics
Gandhidham 7, March: Pramod Chaudhary took charge as president of Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) on November 5, 2022 and he has been the force behind consistent development of the sport at different levels ever since.
An industrialist and an educationist based out of Surat, Mr Chaudhary’s participation in envisioning a long-term development plan for state TT has been exemplary.
In a candid chat, he spoke about some plans and touched upon different topics pertaining to the sport.
Excerpts
Q: Indian men’s and women’s teams book their Paris Olympics spot. Your reactions?
A: It is a historic moment for this nation. I congratulate all my TT colleagues on this incredible feat. Even though the team composition has not been decided yet, we are expecting two Gujarat players to make the final cut.
Q: Valid expectation as three out of top five Indian paddlers belong to Gujarat. What does this mean to Gujarat TT?
A: Good work began many many years back. It’s because of this hard work of highest quality that we have three paddlers-Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah-from Gujarat featuring in the Indian team regularly for the past two and half years. This has never happened before. State’s upcoming players are idolising them and aiming to scale similar heights.
Q: What is your biggest achievement as president of GSTTA?
A: I was not alone in the work done by GSTTA since 2022. This is a team work. Apart from GSTTA office bearers, government of Gujarat’s whole-hearted support through Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG) has been of immense help. Shri Harsh Sanghvi, state sports minister, has taken keen interest in uplifting table tennis in the whole state. The ministry has given us grants to start various projects. We, at GSTTA, have accomplished hosting National Games 2022, two back-to-back national ranking TT tournaments in the state at a very short notice.
Q: Can you elaborate on the projects?
A: As part of government’s aim to host Olympics 2036 in India, SAG has signed MoU with GSTTA to begin the SAG-Tapti Valley High-Performance Table Tennis Centre (HPTTC) in Surat where we have appointed two French coaches- Julian Girard and Cedric Rouleau and two SAG-appointed coaches Mahavir Kumpavt and Ankita-who take care of the selected 32 paddlers from the state. Their training, food, stay and education is taken care of.
Q: Do you have anything big lined up in the near future?
A: The government is backing us to host Asia-level and world-level TT tournaments in Gujarat. The aim is to get world’s best paddlers to play in Gujarat. We are in very advanced talks with the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) for the same. The venue is not finalised but the best hotels and facilities will be in place for the event.
Q: As GSTTA president, what are your aims for upcoming paddlers?
A: Our focus is to develop the game from the grass-root level pan-Gujarat. We are targeting players aged 10 to 12 to give them the best training and see to it that Gujarat has representation at national and international level. The likes of Harmeet, Manav and Manush have done this and we now want to produce more such paddlers.
Q: So far only state players are selected for HPTTC in Surat. Are you open to taking players from outside the state?
A: Yes. We have received many inquiries from other states as well and we want them to join us here. Regular practice with top players from other states will help our players as well. The final decision on the same is yet to be taken.