Confident of men’s TT team qualifying for Paris 2024, says Sharath Kamal

India’s star paddler Sharath Kamal is quite confident of the Indian men’s team qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics through the World Team Table Tennis championships to be held in Busan from February 16 to 25.

“This is our last chance [World team championships] to make it to the quadrennial event. I am pretty confident we can make it to the knockouts (top three enter the knockouts from eight groups),” the 41-year-old told the media here on Tuesday.

If we make it to the quarterfinals, we can make it to Paris. Our men’s team ranking is 16 now. We will go up once the world team rankings are released next week. We will be in 15 then. Of course, the deadline is July 2024,” he added.

The Indian men’s team is grouped (Group 3) with Korea, Poland, New Zealand and Chile. There are eight groups and the top three from each group make it to the knockouts.

Assessing the teams, Sharath said: “Korea is a top team. Poland is a dangerous young team. We have a young team including Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar. I am fit. Sathiyan is recovering from a back injury. He will be back. As for me, I have been focussing on Worlds for the last six months. We are confident,” he said.

Sharath’s mind is focused only on the Worlds. “It will be the be-all and end-all as far as I am concerned. India has never qualified for the Olympics as a team. If we do it, we will get funding from SAI and other external sources. We are sorted for the next four years,” he said.

Sharath, however, is not keen on playing singles at Paris. “I might not try [in singles] as it hasn’t given me the energy. I might not compete in the South Asian qualifying tournament as I don’t want to compete with youngsters whom I am mentoring.”

“If we qualify in men’s team, two singles places are guaranteed (Table Tennis Federation can decide as to who should do). I don’t want to go there, too. In doubles, I will contribute,” he said.

The multiple Commonwealth Games and Asian Games medallist and one of India’s finest Indian paddlers is more than eager to give his all for a final shot at Paris.