Table tennis: Different ball game

Hardly a handful of spectators – the loudest being the Kuwaiti contingent – watched as the GCC table tennis championship proved yet again where racquet sports in this country figure in spectator ratings.

Omar himself was giving his team a winning start to every tie, as the UAE beat the fancied Kuwait for their first win in three matches.

It’s not for nothing that the 21-year-old is disillusioned. Two years back, when XPRESS spoke to Omar, he had talked of leaving table tennis to play football. He did just that in August last year. Speaking to XPRESS, Omar said: “I actually quit table tennis for a while and practised football with Al Nasr and then with Al Shabab at this time last year.

I thought I might as well play football since that is the only sport in which you get noticed in this country. It’s no good being the UAE No 1 table tennis player. At least I would have earned more playing football than the Dh4,000 I earn now being a table tennis player.

But then, the Al Nasr officials lured me back into table tennis saying things will change for the better, but it hasn’t. We still have no contracts and there’s no pay hike. I feel cheated, it’s like living a lie.”

Going nowhere

The bitterness boils over as Omar reveals how the doors seem to have closed for him. “I have a good offer from Al Wasl club, they have offered me a two-year contract. But I have been prevented from going there. It’s strange that despite Al Nasr being the seven times champion, our salaries don’t reflect that achievement,” he said.

Omar also ruled out any improvement in the country’s table tennis standard in the near future. “We have organised a few ITTF junior Pro-Tour events, but so what?

It hasn’t changed the way people perceive the game here. Look at countries like Qatar and Kuwait, who have senior ITTF Pro-Tour events. Our federation doesn’t have the money and the sponsors are not interested,” he said.

So, what does the future hold for Omar? “I really don’t know. There are a few tournaments like the Asian Championships coming up which I hope to play, but then out here nobody practises for the national team. It’s only the inter-club meet that is taken seriously,” he said.