"This is the best chance in history of table tennis for the Indian contingent" - Former coach Deepak Malik has high hopes for Paris Olympics 2024
India have never won a medal in table tennis at the Olympics. However, this time the nation, which has a population of approximately 1.4Bn, has the opportunity to shine bright at the Paris Olympics 2024. The table tennis faithfuls, fans or even ardent critics, haven't spoken much about India's medal glory at the upcoming Summer Games, but former Indian table tennis team's coach Deepak Malik has that belief.
What didn't happen in the past editions, might change this year. For a first, India has relied on analytics which has helped the contingent comprising Manika Bantra, Manav Thakkar and co. properly analyze themselves, the opponents' strengths and weaknesses, and the techniques needed to overcome any opposition.
India's table tennis contingent for the Paris Olympics has top players like Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra, Manav Thakkar, Harmeet Desai, Archana Kamath, and new World No. 24 Sreeja Akula. Deepak Malik has high hopes for the contingent and believes this is the edition where India has the best chance to create history, certainly in table tennis.
Sportskeeda recently spoke to the former Indian TT coach in an exclusive interview. Excerpts are below:
Q. Can you share your recent-most experience with the Indian camp which ended some time back?
A. The camp was very good. The training was going on at full throttle. The good part about the Table Tennis Federation of India is that this is the first time they have introduced technology and analytical support for the Indian team for this camp.
With the help of Massimo Costantini, who also likes to work on the technology piece, because he always believes that with the help of technology, we can be aware and support the players and coaches to prioritize the training plans and more about knowing their strengths and weaknesses. I feel he has played a pivotal role to introduce technology for the first time for Indian table tennis in training.
Q. What is your assessment of the squad going to the Paris Olympics 2024?
A. I feel it's a wonderful squad, and the way now the girls are playing and competing with the top-notch players around the world, it's wonderful. And very recently, Sreeja won the gold medal, beating a junior Chinese player. But still, she's consistent in her performance and, very recently, like the way Manika has performed in the Saudi Smash, and especially she played some crucial matches in the last World Championship in Bhutan.
The team looks very strong from both perspectives, but a little bit more from the women's side. So I think this is the best chance so far in the history of table tennis for the Indian contingent to get the best out of them in any Olympic tournament.
Q. What about Ayhika Mukherjee and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan being left out? How do you look at this?
A. This is the matter of the selection committee and the Table Tennis Federation of India. And I believe what they have done, they have done best for table tennis and the interest of our nation. In my personal opinion, I feel this is a fair selection because of the way the Olympic format is there and the players, those who are there in the reservation slot, so the other player who got the spot instead of them, they are also equally consistent enough.
If I talk about the men's side, Manav Thakkar and women's side, Archana Kamath. They have been very consistent in the international circuit for more than a year. And the good part is they both have already represented India at the Youth Olympics together. I don't feel like they are genuinely newcomer or juniors. They have pretty much good experience.
I remember because that time I was very actively working with them as a coach for the national team. So Archana played semi-finals, I guess, if I'm correctly remembering, in the Youth Olympics. So it's a long journey for both of the players, those who are proving their mettle since their childhood.
Q. Can you shed light on how technology is helping the national team?
A. Things have grown from the technology perspective in the last few years, and especially with the wave of tech startups going on in India. I'm a very firm believer of using all the latest technology to enhance the performance, not only in sports, in any field.
And when I was actively doing my coaching, even with the Indian team or even with my own club Pinnacle Table Tennis, I was the first one to introduce these kinds of analysis and technology in India a long time back, even before the origin of Stupa Sports Analytics. We have supported the team for this camp. So the idea was coming from coach Massimo as he was very keen to have all the matches analyzed, recent matches analyzed of all the Olympic squad for all eight players.
So he has not taken only three men's players and three women's players, because for him, as per him, all four and plus four eight players are equally important, and they are the part of the Olympic team. So we have given the match analysis, deep match analysis of all the eight players before the camp, just to give him more insight, deep insights of players, trends and patterns and how they are performing.
Then during the camp itself, he had some specific ideas where we needed to give them deep insights and specific analysis during their training. For example, their point of contact, their footwork, their movement and so on. There are many more matrices on which he asked us for specific reports, data points, which we carved out on the basis of our technology, and then submitted the report to coach Massimo, which he eventually was sharing with the players and talking to the players to make them more aware about themselves.
Massimo Costantini was very keen to work on their strengths as well, because everybody works on the weaknesses. But he was more emphasizing on the strength of the players, and to make them aware what are the main areas where they are good. So all in all, we helped the Indian team to give more insights about their own matches, their own style of play. And then during the camp, we gave them all kind of technical support, which they needed to know during the drills and during their internal matches.
Q. Can you name a few standout players from your coaching career?
A. One of my students is already now representing India - Manav Thakkar. So I was the coach for Manav for more than three years, and when he became World No. 1 in the U-21 level, he was training under me. The other player is Payas Jain. He also became World No. 2 in U-15 or U-18 when I was coaching him.
Regarding Payas, I started the journey from Day 1. So like giving the racket in his hand till him achieving a ranking in the underage levels. But yes, there are many more.
Q. Apart from table tennis, which athletes from which other sports can bring medals for India?
A. I think this time, there are many and we are very much hopeful of bringing medals in double digits. For example, we can get a medal in athletics. We are always looking for Neeraj Chopra because he is giving continuous hope to the whole nation. The relay team is doing very well. Then the shooting contingent is very big, and we are quite hopeful, because in shooting we are standing at the second spot after China in terms of qualification.
I personally have high hopes from the shooting side. And yes, there are many more, but just to name, I'm very hopeful from the badminton as well as the shooting contingent.