Like the game of Cricket, not many other games offer good returns and therefore many youngsters from middle and lower middle income group families, avoid playing these games, which are played at international level. There is no enough support coming from the state and national federations of many such sports to deserving youngsters, whose family members cannot afford to spend for their children, towards the cost of travel and hotel stay arrangements during the state and zonal championships of these sports.
Sagar Kasture
Now, take for example 19 year old Sagar Kasture, who lives in a chawl at Nehru nagar, Vile Parle, Mumbai. His father drives autorickshaw for his daily earnings, to support his family. Since his childhood Sagar has been passionate about the game of table tennis. He was first spotted by Jayesh Lakhani from Juhu, who asked him to join his academy JLTTA and offered free training. Thereafter, two renowned TT trainers Raju Sawant and Nilesh Pandirkar also offered free training to Sagar at their traning academy.
However, due to poor financial condition, he was not able to take part in all the Zonal, National and international level tournaments, till the time he was under 18 years of age and while playing in Junior’s section. Now, Sagar has turned 19 and due to cancellation of Youth Singles (U-21 category) at the state and national level TT, he has to play in the Men’s category. Neverthless, he still finds his ranking in this category and is all prepared to participate in all state ranking and national ranking TT tournaments. Till now, Sagar has performed extremely well at the state level tournaments, for the past seven years and his only wish is to represent India in international TT tournaments and make all his supporters proud of him.
‘If there is a will, there is a way’. His PT teacher Ms. Sakshi Satish Kamtekar from his earlier Municipal School in Vile Parle, where he did his schooling; has been approaching well wishers, to sponsor Sagar for such outstation tournaments. During the recently concluded MCF 3 star TT tournament, she was introduced by her family friend Girish Wagle – a coach at MCF, to few senior players playing in the 60+ category. After hearing about Sagar’s plight, they came forward to help this youngster. When they heard that Sagar was going to kangra at Himachal Pradesh for Zonal All India TT tourney, two of them sponsored his air ticket expenses. Other senior player presented him with new branded shoes and also offered his own prize money won in two Masters’ tournament to him, to meet the partial cost of the hotel expenses, which Sagar will be sharing with four other friends from Mumbai during this tournament.
If this was not enough, another good news he heard from a senior player and well wisher- former TT Champ Shalmalee Gosar( whom he calls Shalmalee tai) , at the Khar Gymkhana 3 Star Ranking tournament. Shalmalee Gosar along with nine other well wishers who are business entrepreneurs from Mulund, namely Rajendra Dulla, Amit Patani, Prem Churla, Rajeev Parekh, Pooja Gada, Shraddha Thale, Vikram Shah, Jay Kotecha and Nipam Bhatt; will be offering Sagar Rs. 10,000/- per month, to meet his TT expenses. This is a fine gesture and also a very good news for Sagar. Sagar also receives help from Tibhar company in the form of Ply and rubbers. He uses Tibhar Evolution K3(F) Tibhar Evolution MX-P50 rubbers and Tibhar STRATUSCarbon ply. For his physical fitness and exercises, he goes to Positive Physiotherapy,Vile Parle East, where Dr. Yuvraj Singh has offered him special concession in fees.
But, Sagar is seriously looking for a Job or scholarship from big corporate houses or NGO’s. “I would prefer a job, rather than depending upon help from individual sponsors. I am really thankful to all those who came forward to help me during the period my struggle. Mr. Praful Shah donated Rs. 1 Lakh to me. Arjun Patra Sir helped me a lot with training and equipments during Corona pandemic lockdown period. Salian Brothers Kiran and Naveen, donated Rs. 25,000/- in memory of their late father. Bhavesh Shah helped me with financial assistance for many tournaments. Yogesh Desai also donated Rs. 5,000/- for one tournament. Few other senior players who are presently helping me, don’t want their names to be disclosed. I am really grateful to them. They are real inspiration for me.”
Sagar, who is studying in the first year of Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at ADAMAS University, Kolkatta; through online course, is certainly a bright prospect, if he takes part in all state ranking , zonal, national and international TT tournaments. He plays with penholder grip, which makes his game more unique during rallies. But, he certainly needs guidance from a Chinese coach on his services with penholder grip. Hope he finds a suitable sponsor for the same in near future. Wishing him all the best for the forthcoming Zonal TT tournament in Himachal Prdesh and other major tournaments to follow. Those who are really keen on offering him job or offer him sports scholarship, can contact him on his mobile number 7208690081 Or write to him on his e mail id’s : sagarkasture05@gmail.com or sagarkasture13125@gmail.com