Testing positive in China will be a nightmare: G Sathiyan

The Table Tennis World Team Championships have always been one of the most challenging tournaments for the Indian team. This year’s edition, though, brings about an unprecedented challenge. And for reasons way beyond table tennis.
The tournament is scheduled to be held in Chengdu, China, from September 30 to October 9. China is still battling waves of Covid-19 and Chengdu is essentially in lockdown. Essentially, this will be the only international sports competition in China this year after the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics as the country postponed the Asian Games 2022 and relinquished hosting rights of the Men’s Asian Cup football scheduled in 2023 because of rising cases of Covid-19.
The Indian men’s team will face a unique challenge because it will be the first time since 2003 that they will be without veteran talisman Sharath Kamal at a major championship. The 40-year-old, who had a sensational outing at the recently-held Commonwealth Games in Birmingham winning gold medals in men’s singles, mixed doubles and men’s team events as well as a silver in men’s doubles, pulled out of the tournament asking for time to recover.
In Sharath’s absence, G Sathiyan will lead the men’s team while Manika Batra will continue to head the women’s team.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Sathiyan said that though Sharath’s presence will be missed, he’s “responsible and happy to lead the side” saying that he’s learned a lot from “just being alongside Sharath”.
The main challenge though remains to get to China, stay there, and then return back to India.
G Sathiyan reacts after picking a point. (PTI)
To get to and fro from China, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), have organised chartered flights from Dubai and Singapore on September 26th. But prior to getting on the chartered flight, players have to undergo three Covid tests and in the last week before the tournament, they have to update their health status on a portal shared with them.
The issue for the Indian contingent is that they have to first compete at the National Games from September 20-24 in Surat. The organisers decided to conduct the table tennis event before the opening ceremony scheduled for September 29 as the players have to go for the World Championships.
The team will fly to Dubai from Delhi on September 25th before taking the chartered flight for Chengdu on the 26th.
G Sathiyan of India in action. (Reuters)
While the ITTF have promised the teams great hospitality in Chengdu, the fact remains that the tournament will happen in the strictest of bio-bubbles; no player will be allowed to even step out of the zone. Players will be tested every day and if found showing any kind of symptoms, will be put in strict quarantine. Sathiyan says, that’s the biggest fear.
“The last time I was in a strict bubble was at the Doha WTT in 2020. The Tokyo Olympics had a bio-bubble but it was quite relaxed. It seems as though China is still in the 2020 phase when it comes to Covid restrictions.

“Our biggest fear is testing positive in China. It would be a nightmare for an individual as well as the team. We don’t know how strict the quarantine will be or for how long.”
And what about actually playing table tennis?
“The competition is very difficult, to be honest,” says Sathiyan. “We need to do well in this edition to have a better seeding for the next World Championships which will act as a qualifier for the Olympics. Our team has trained well and we are high on confidence after the Commonwealth Games so hopefully, we will do well.”
The lure of WTT Champions Macao
Apart from Sathiyan and Manika, the rest of the Indian team will come back to either Dubai or Singapore chartered flight latest October 10.
Sathiyan and Manika are looking to compete at the WTT Champions in Macao from October 19-23. The top 30 players in the world automatically qualify while organisers can give one player a wildcard while one spot is reserved for the host nation.
Manika Batra. (File)
Though Sathiyan is currently ranked 37 in men’s singles and Manika is 63rd in women’s singles, the rule that not more than four players can play from a country gives at least Sathiyan a good chance of qualifying.
The only issue is that players are asked to be in quarantine for seven days — where they’re allowed to train — before going to Macao.
Players not coming from the bio-bubble in Chengdu have to be in an even stricter bubble which essentially means that they have to reach Macao on October 6. It’s one of the reasons why Sharath too pulled out of the tournament.

To slightly compensate for the restrictions and also to lure players in order to have a competitive playing 32, organisers have hiked the prize money on offer.
While most WTT Champions tournaments offer a prize purse of $500,000, the Macao tournament’s prize purse is $700,000. There’s a significant bump in money for playing in the opening rounds (Rd of 32, 16). For some context, the WTT in Budapest which was held in July this year offered $4,250 for playing in Rd of 32 and $6,500 for the Rd of 16. Macao on the other hand is offering $7,250 for Rd of 32 and $10,000 for Rd of 16, something that is unprecedented.
“Just playing the first round guarantees players $7,250. That’s a great lure but when you take into consideration the effort it’s going to take to get there, you understand why,” Sathiyan said.
And while he’s yet to sort out his visa and travel itinerary, there’s one thing Sathiyan and most of the players can’t seem to get off their minds.
“We’re going to China and there’s a Covid-19 lockdown there.”