Ace Mentor

Thirty-four years ago in 1975 the World Table Tennis championship was held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium when a ticket to the world tourney cost only 19 paisa.

Bengal paddlers are in the forefront of table tennis,thanks largely to Tapan Chanda. Sudeep Pakrashi gives a lowdown

Thirty-four years ago in 1975 the World Table Tennis championship was held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium when a ticket to the world tourney cost only 19 paisa. Tapan Chanda recalls how he asked his parents for 19 paise and how he watched the breath-taking event. In a way the mega show at the Netaji Indoor Stadium transformed Tapan Chanda’s love from cricket to table tennis.

Tapan Chanda didn’t exactly excel as a player though. He has represented Bengal in both the junior and senior levels in the early 80s. He won the bronze medal for Bengal team in the 1985 National Games where he made a major contribution.

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Chanda began his second innings as a coach in 1988 at Baishakhi Sangha in south Kolkata. He got a job in Eastern Railway in 1980. The 48-year-old coach said: “The one-month session with Park U Gil,the renowned Korean coach in 1986 at Kshudiram Anusilan Kendra,was the stepping stone of my coaching career. We were 20 players from Bengal who attended the one-month programme. It was there that I learnt how to groom a student psychologically. This benefited me immensely when I worked with Poulami Ghatak later.”

Poulami Ghatak has been Chanda’s best student so far in his chequered 21 years of coaching career. Chanda recalls: “Her father wanted me to train her up. I found Poulami’s adaptability in mastering the basic skills to be amazing. And she was passionate about the game which helped her at training. I knew that one day she would win all the top national awards. And today she has made it to the top.”

Chanda,apart from benefitting immensely from Park U Gil,had another crucial one-month seminar on improvement of techniques in China in 2000.

“The famous woman Chinese table tennis player Deniya Ping delivered some important lectures on the basics of the game and gradual improvement in the standard of world table tennis. This helped me a lot in improving the skills of my students at Baishakhi Sangha later.”

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Chanda is the country’s lone table tennis coach to have received three national awards from the Union sports ministry. He received awards for being the coach of the medal-winning Indian team for the junior Asian championship in 2000; for the silver medal winning Indian team in the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and for being the coach of the silver medal winning Indian squad in the Commonwealth Games in 2005.

Chanda is now concentrating on his brightest student Soumi Mondol who has already represented Bengal and India.

“She has the potential to attain Ghatak’s feat in future,” Chanda said.

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