By Admin 
Minutes after Ankur Bhattacharjee’s five-game loss to Lam Siu Hang of Hong Kong (China), which sealed India’s quarterfinal exit in the Asian table tennis team championships, young captain Manav Thakkar turned to head coach Massimo Costantini and said softly: “Sorry, coach.”
The Italian veteran, though, wasn’t having any of it. “Don’t feel sorry,” he told Manav and the rest of the team. “You gave your best.”
No wonder then that Costantini sounded anything but disappointed after India’s men failed to secure a medal for the first time in four editions.
“I am not disappointed. It was a balanced match. We lost two games by a close margin of 3-2. At the end it’s 3-0, I understand. And no excuses,” Costantini told The Hindu.
“I didn’t expect much — the team is young, with big responsibility on them. First time, boom, they’re in a quarterfinal, defending a medal they didn’t even win last year. Both Ankur and Manush (Shah) were playing for the first time. They said, ‘sorry coach, we tried.’ And I’m happy with the effort. They did their job, they tried. I knew the match was tough. We lost, but I think this was a good start from the young crop.”
Costantini, who has overseen multiple generations of Indian paddlers, admitted that his next task will be to work on the team’s mental fortitude as it begins life after the retirement of stalwart A. Sharath Kamal.
“Sharath is a leader. Now we have to work to make someone else a leader. Legacy is not an easy task,” he said.
“It takes time to develop mentally. Tactically and technically, they are doing great things. But mentally, you have a million thoughts during a match — ‘what if I lose? what if my country, my team…?’ How you manage these emotions — that’s my job, to make them ready for the next time,” Costantini emphasised.