The team is losing momentum, feel Sharath and Sathiyan

Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan feel that the delay in the appointment of a foreign coach for the senior men's and women's national team has resulted in the team “losing momentum."

Sathiyan concurs with Sharath when he says without a coach, planning gets affected and consequently the players have to individually plan, which is a bit of a headache.

India’s star paddlers, Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan, feel that the delay in the appointment of a foreign coach for the senior men's and women's national team has resulted in the team “losing momentum."

“By this time, we should have a got a coach,” emphasised Sharath, the nine-time National table tennis champion, ranked 33 in the world. “We are losing on time and there is no continuity in the [national] camp as there is rotation of [Indian] coaches.

According to Sharath, without a coach, planning gets affected and consequently the players have to individually plan, which is a bit of a headache.  

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World no 28 Sathiyan, too, concurred.  He said that when the former foreign coach Massimo Costantini was in charge, everything went off well.

“He was very good in planning, and that enabled us to focus better,” said the 26-year-old.

Citing bureaucratic paper-work for the delay, Sharath said these things are bound to happen.

“Max [Costantini] quit in September 2018 and by that time the all the European coaches had found a job," he said. 

Sathiyan added there was a similar vacuum when Costantini had quit after the 2010 Commonwealth Games.