Mumbai: Shortly after the Indian teams’ early exit from the World Team Table Tennis Championships in May, Massimo Costantini had hoped four months would be enough time to work toward a bounce back at the Asian Games .
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He was also asked to travel from Sweden to India, as part of the preparation plans for the Asian Games starting September 17. Costantini’s contract as Indian TT’s foreign coach ended after the Team Worlds in May. It is learnt that the TTFI asked Costantini to travel for the Europe Smash, where most of India’s leading players competed in the prestigious tournament currently ongoing. His return to India is on hold for now. It is also learnt that Costantini laid out the preparation roadmap for the Asian Games to the federation in March. Ahead of any multi-sport or major team events, Indian players usually assemble for a camp or training block in India or overseas under the Italian’s supervision. It remains to be seen how much, and for how long, that is impacted with Costantini asked to return home. India’s Asian Games squad, though, is unlikely to be affected since the list of selected players was already handed over to the IOA. The faction-hit federation was suspended by the ministry citing governance lapses, failure to hold elections on time and selection issues. Manika Batra, one of the country’s leading paddlers, questioned the federation and its selection policy upon her exclusion from the Asian Games squad in June.
He returned to Italy after having “positive talks” with TTFI and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) regarding his reappointment. In a chat with HT then, he said he hoped the formalities would be completed quickly, “so that I can get back to the job” ahead of the Asian Games. The same month, TTFI invited applications for the post of “foreign coach/expert”.
With the Table Tennis Federation of India’s (TTFI) recognition suspended by the Sports Ministry on Wednesday, Costantini’s reappointment as the foreign coach, and the squad’s preparation plans for the Asian Games, appear to be in limbo.
