India-bound Jack set for elite bow
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday March 5, 2021 12:40
Jack departs for India today (Friday) under a four-year partnership between the Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) and the India High Commission in Botswana. The deal will see the Indian High Commission give one young table tennis player every year, over the next four years, a chance to pursue academics at a state university while playing the sport.
The youngster became the first beneficiary of the partnership and was granted a scholarship by the India Council and Cultural Relationship. He will study B.Tech at the Delhi Technological University in India where he will resume his class that he has been taking online since December 2020.
However, prior to Jack’s departure, the youngster was to secure a spot in an elite team in India. BTTA development coordinator, Katlego Nkwakweng confirmed that Jack will be playing at the highest level of ping pong in the populous Asian state. She said the BTTA together with one of its partners, STAG International will be looking to help the youngster secure a spot with an Ultimate Table Tennis league club.
“As of now, he has not yet found a club in India, or we have not looked for it because STAG International India will help look for a suitable club, determined by its proximity to his residence and the school. He will be playing professional table tennis,” she said.
Jack was chosen for the scholarship after beating two other applicants. Amongst the selection criteria, the aspirant had to at least have obtained 36 points in the BGCSE whilst they should have competed in at least five national championships. The 19-year-old started his studies last December through virtual classes and will be flying to resume where he had left off.
In 2018, he finished 10th at the Africa Youth Games in Algeria while he was part of the team that competed at the AUSC Region 5 Games held in Gaborone and the South African Championships in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Jack is regarded as one of the promising paddlers locally and would become the first local to play at the UTT league. Ping pong is regarded as a fast-growing sport since the establishment of the UTT, which is a professional league, in 2017. India men’s team sits 10th and the women’s side is ranked 22nd in the ITTF world rankings. One of the country’s leading players, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, who is ranked 44th in world rankings signed with German Bundesliga’s top division club ASV Grunwettersbach Tischtennis, from the UTT 2019 and it remains one the biggest moves in the country’s ping pong history.