Brothers Srinivasa Rao and Muralidhara Rao could comprehend that had developed a bond with the paddle. Despite not having the proper equipment, let alone coaching, they did well to learn the trade by watching the senior players.
Like every child in India who ever grew affection for a sport, the ultimate dream of the Rao brothers was to represent their nation. Except, there was one problem – their location. Hailing from Andhra Pradesh’s Rajahmundry, a small city on the banks of river Godavari, the brothers lacked access to almost everything they needed to be a table tennis star.
This triggered a journey from Rajahmundry to Tamil Nadu’s Chennai, and looking back it at now, it could be considered the best decision they have ever taken.
While neither Srinivasa nor Muralidhara could make it beyond the state-level tournaments, they have played a momentous role in the remarkable journey of a transcendental sporting talent – Achanta Sharath Kamal.
Growing Affection for Table Tennis
By the time Sharath was born, his father had become a national-level coach. Srinavasa would take his four-year-old child to his table tennis coaching sessions, hoping that the kid would grow an interest in the sport.
Sharath’s journey had not even started when his father strategised a career plan for him, determined to ensure his son achieves everything the Rajahmundhry kid once dreamt of, but could never realise.
In an interview with Rediff, Rao once said “I had a dream for him. I wanted him to achieve all that we could not. I wanted him to win laurels for himself and the country. When we were playing, we were humiliated. We resolved that we would coach many youngsters, including our own children.”
The Road (Not) Taken
Fortunately, Sharath not only was interested in table tennis, but he also was pretty good at it. It took all but a few years for him to be a state-level champion of his age division, and the career graph has predominantly experienced only ascendancy over the last three decades.
But at 15, he found himself at a crucial juncture. A decision was to be made in favour of either table tennis or a more ‘secure’ career option as an engineer – trying to juggle the two would only result in failures in both. Not that Robert Frost was astonishingly popular among Indian kids, but Kamal did choose the road less travelled by.
As Frost would say, the decision made all the difference.
Engineering was hence ditched for a B.Com degree, where he would need a 15-day window before every exam to maintain synchronisation between academics and sporting endeavours. While being a college student, he would also land a job as a TC with Southern Railways.
“I was still studying because it's better to have an education base also because firstly you have another option, if in case you don't make it big in sport you need to have some something to fall back on,” he told Firstpost.
The ‘fall back’ option is often a necessity for budding athletes, but invariably, it also results in exhaustion. Donning multiple hats at one time required composure and skill, and while Sharath admittedly sometimes let go of the former, the latter never deserted.
In 2003, he won his first National Table Tennis Championship title, and a year later, the player from Chennai departed for Greece, as the 2004 Olympics beckoned. Though not in Athens and not the one featuring five rings, he did bring home not one, but two international gold medals in 2006 – from his maiden Commonwealth Games expedition.
The next few years saw Sharath firmly establishing himself as the frontman of the Indian table tennis circuit, but even in cases of the greats, the law of averages does not make room for exceptions.
The Setback and Second Innings
The next few years saw Sharath firmly establishing himself as the frontman of the Indian table tennis circuit, but even in cases of the greats, the law of averages does not make room for exceptions.
The dip in form came when he could not qualify for the 2012 Olympics and returned empty-handed from the 2014 Commonwealth Games. To make matters even worse, he suffered a career-threatening hamstring tear in 2015.
Sitting in a wheelchair for months, and already being in his thirties, it would not have been one bit surprising if he decided to call curtains to his career.
But for those having an eye for the broader perspective, temporary setbacks are not particularly significant.
Sharath bounced back by qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, and since, what we have witnessed is the same old greatness, but in its reinvigorated form. A ninth National Championship title saw him breaking Kamlesh Mehta’s record tally, only for it to be broken again just before his 40th birthday, with a staggering 10th title.
The forties was also embraced in quintessential Sharath Kamal-esque fashion – with four medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, three of them being gold. Having won the Arjuna Award and Padma Shri previously, the ace paddler also received the Khel Ratna award this year.
Having accomplished almost everything he could have under the sun, one can’t be blamed for thinking the player’s coruscating career will now meet its conclusion.
But with Paris opening its door to Olympics in a couple of years, Sharath Kamal has no intention to stop. The journey, like his repute, is expanding its horizons to defy the predetermined realms of time.
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