This 48-year-old is striving to nurture sports champions

Hyderabad: A few run a sporting academy for financial benefits while others because of their passion. The 48-year-old Ashish Chakravarthy is the one who falls in the second category. An ardent sports fan and a badminton player himself, Ashish started Ping Pong @SPARS Table Tennis Academy in Yapral in 2020 with a motive to inculcate […]

Hyderabad: A few run a sporting academy for financial benefits while others because of their passion. The 48-year-old Ashish Chakravarthy is the one who falls in the second category. An ardent sports fan and a badminton player himself, Ashish started Ping Pong @SPARS Table Tennis Academy in Yapral in 2020 with a motive to inculcate sporting culture in society, especially in kids.

The inspiration behind starting the academy was his father who was a badminton player and dreamt of establishing a badminton academy of his own. Though he failed to do that, Ashish realised his father’s dreams. With many badminton academies already established in the area, Ashish chose table tennis which needed a boost.

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Ashish left a well-paying job to focus solely on this academy. Speaking on how he started the academy, Ashish said, “Starting an academy was my father’s dream. However, there were several badminton academies in this area. We picked up TT realising that the game required a boost.”

“Our motto is to inculcate sporting culture in society. When I decided to open the academy, I quit my job at Fever FM and dedicated my energy to the academy. Along with a few friends, we knocked on several doors for suggestions. Despite several hurdles like Covid-19 and a lack of prior knowledge – we worked hard to open this academy. With this being a commercial complex, the rents are high as well. We are still working hard to sustain this academy since there is no income generated from it. But, with the help of a few friends and a couple of sponsors, we are running it,” he pointed out.

On the game front, Ashish brought two coaches – Ritwick Das from Kolkata and Riju Ghosh from Silugur – to provide the best of the coaching in the city. “The idea is to get more kids connected to sports. Sports not only help in fitness and health but also help in life. The resilience, fighting spirit sport teaches these kids to add value to the society,” he pointed out.

The academy has 22 trainees right now and a few kids have done well in the recently-concluded State ranking tournaments. The academy is also training five underprivileged kids for free.

But how does he manage to run the academy with such meager income? “Luckily, we have a few friends who chip in and a couple of sponsors are helping. Our goal is to produce champions. In the last few months, we have our kids playing in State ranking tournaments and doing well, which is satisfying. We have kids from underprivileged families who are doing great. But a few kids left because of their parents who want them to help them with their work. Here, we provide all facilities for free to these underprivileged kids. The rackets they use cost a lot. But we managed to continue the training. I am sure they will produce results soon,” he added.