Multi-stage CWG preparation plan to help paddlers: coach

With a three-stage plan in place, Indian paddlers would be fully prepared for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year, feels national coach Bhawani Mukherjee.

Mukherjee, chief coach of Sports Authority of India (SAI) for table tennis spearheading the task of preparing Indian paddlers for the Delhi Games, said the final list of probables would be shortlisted early next year.

"We are following a three-stage formula for next year's Commonwealth Games. This is not an overnight process but a long term strategy. We should wait for some more time before it starts producing results," Mukherjee said.

"Currently, we are working on 20 men and 17 women probables. After the January National Championships in Guwahati, this number would come down to 12 and 10 respectively. Then we will start special training with the entire focus on the Commonwealth Games," he added.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Asian Championships, the veteran coach emphasised the role of basic skills like physical fitness in the sport.

"Basic aspects like physical fitness and technical accuracy are being taken care of now. During the China camps also, players were mainly focused on the basic aspects because table tennis is a skill sport," he said.

"In the second stage, we will rectify their technical and tactical problems. Then the risk factor trainings would come in the third stage," Mukherjee added.

Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal was the lone good performer for the hosts while rest of the Indians kept finding the Chinese and Singaporeans too hot to handle in the ongoing event's team competitions.

The Patiala-based coach, who was not satisfied with the players' show, admitted that Indians have to raise the standard of their game by several notches to meet the expectations.

"I agree, performance of some of our main players in the recent tournaments were not up to the mark. They need to fine-tune their game. I think, it would be a worry if their game doesn't improve even during the final phase of training next year," he said.

"But at the same time young players like Divya Deshpande, Pooja Sahashrabudhe and Devesh Karia have showed promise. We can also consider them to improve the bench strength," said Mukherjee, who training the paddlers along with foreign coach Massimo Constantini of Italy.

"We have a few international tournaments, including the World Championships and Pro Tour Indian Open next year. The objective is to pull off some good wins in team events in order to secure a higher seeding in the Delhi Games," Mukherjee said.