From sleepy village to talent factory

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When Jacob Joseph retired from the army, he decided to settle down in Wayanad and thought about spending his time playing table tennis.

Unfortunately, he could not find any training centre to practise the game in the village of Thariode near Kalpetta. However, this did not restrict him. He, with the help of the people of the village, set up a table tennis academy, which turned out to be a power house of table tennis players in the State, 11 years ago.

”About 60 per cent of students taking part in the nationals are from the academy, which is named Young Soldiers Academy. As there are not many table tennis academies in Kerala, we have contributed a lot of players to the State,” says Jacob Joseph.

In 2000, when he approached people to start a table tennis academy, everyone welcomed it. “It was because of the public support, I was able to set up the training centre and the facilities. Every year, people used to contribute from their pockets. More than the efforts of individuals, it is the people of this village who made the table tennis academy a reality,” he says.

He has also received funds from the panchayats and the State government. “The State government has recognised ours as a rural training centre and allotted `1 lakh last year. About 100 students are presenlty training in the institute,” he says.

The centre has a table tennis ball machine bought using the funds from the local people. There are seven table tennis tables and sessions happen throughout the day. “The MLA of our constituency has also said that he would contribute one more training machine. We were able to bring down the game to the people by offering free-of-cost training for the players using these facilities,” he says.

Jacob Joseph was a former Karnataka junior player. However, he was not able to continue his career. This made him to decide to spent his retirement age training table tennis. Today, he is the sole trainer in the academy. About 20 hearing-impaired students are also getting trained in the institute. Besides, the university players from Wayanad are also trained by them.

The players are sent for various tournaments in the nation and they have clinched the gold medal in the SAI Mini Games held in Bhopal last year. Also, several players have represented the State in the U-17 and U-19 categories.