Rankings no yardstick to gauge team talent in CTTC

Yet some players that will participate in the 20th Avadh Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, beginning at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium here from Wednesday, are not a mismatch by any stretch of imagination.

A close scrutiny of the players list and going by the current world ranking, the top-ranked men’s player happens to be Singapore’s Li Hu at 59, while the next best player is Soumyajit Ghosh of India at 95. Singapore’s other players ranked in the 150-and-above bracket like the other Indians in fray here.

In a way, both the teams may be more or less matching each other in the ITTF’s world ranking but the experience of Li will count for when the two teams match-up during the championships in team events.

Li, who is a regular on the ITTF circuit events and consistent at that, has been able to maintain his ranking in the 50s. Ghosh, on the other hand, while being a regular with his league commitments in Germany and Poland, has failed to consider the ITTF tournaments.

That’s where the difference between Achanta Sharath Kamal and Ghosh or, for that matter with Anthonhy Amalraj and Harmeet Desai.

Sharath, who suffered a hip injury in the world championships in China, has been maintaining his world ranking in the 50s and 60s. But his recent injury just before the championships has come as a jolt to the organizers as well as India.

In comparison to men’s ranking, Singapore’s Zhou Yihan is the only player in the top-50 and it will be she who holds the key to her team’s success. The world No. 46, along with world No. 57 Lin Ye will shoulder the team’s entire burden.

As for the hosts, the top-ranked Indian is Manika Batra at 166 and veteran Mouma Das is the next best at 20 places above her in world ranking. The rest of the team is in the above-200 bracket.

That obviously puts India the second best team on view at the championships here. Unlike the men players who have more exposure through professional leagues or playing in ITTF tournaments, the women’s team members depend on only ITTF tournaments for logging valuable ranking points. Only K. Shamini has the experience of playing in a professional league.

Even the English men’s team has only one player in David Mcbeath at No. 350 while his other team members are 460 and above in world rankings. England, who had a dominant position in Commonwealth table tennis for a long period, is struggling to catch up with teams like Singapore and New Zealand, who have in their ranks players of Chinese origin.

Meanwhile, team members from Cyprus were the first to hit base here and a few members also visited the stadium. However, they skipped the practice session today and felt very happy with the arrangements and amazed to see the wonderful stadium.

“The lighting and playing conditions are very good here. We are enjoying the atmosphere,” said Stephanos Gregoriou, their most experienced player, who is ranked 646 in the world.

Four Singapore players arrived today while the rest are expected later tonight. Wales, England, New Zealand and Jersey are also expected here in the wee hours as they are coming via Mumbai. The Indians, too, will arrive at Surat tomorrow afternoon from Gandhinagar, where they had been training.

Three teams—South Africa, Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago—are expected to reach here by tomorrow evening.