Hyderabad: Former table tennis player Ghosh does a Gopichand, opens academy

Hyderabad, April 21: A residential coaching centre started its journey on Thursday (April 19) in Hyderabad, similar to Pullela Gopichand's famous badminton academy.

But the new academy with modern and all scientific instruments is not a badminton academy. Rather it is a table tennis centre.

Hyderabad, which is now called the city of shuttles, has now seen a table tennis academy also and its management claimed that within couple of years Hyderabad will not only be called the city of shuttles, it will also be called the city of ping pongs.

The initiative has been taken by a former table tennis player from Bengal. He is Somnath Ghosh. He is the anchor of this project.

Speaking from Hyderabad on Thursday, Ghosh said, 'We have placed 25 tables of international standard so far. Along the tables, we have set two video class rooms where the students will be shown their training and matches for rectifications. We have made two ultra-modern gymnasiums. We have strengthened the medical units by installing



modern medical data recovery system. Through this system the coaches can have exact idea on the players' fitness levels.'

But the most significant part of this academy is that the paddlers are being trained by another Bengali coach who is former national champion. He is Soumyadip Roy, husband of Poulami Ghatak.

Soumyadip said, 'After retiring from the main stream table tennis I was nurturing dreams to start such a residential school. But I did not get any response from either any corporate house or from the state government. I had asked them to sponsor the project. Then, I got a call from Somnath Ghosh regarding joining the academy here in Hyderabad and accepted it immediately.'

Incidentally, a franchise based table tennis league like cricket and football is going to start next July. It has been learnt that a few top Chinese players have given consent for the league.

Soumyadip said, 'Before that tournament, this academy will help us a lot to build quality paddlers.'