THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As Namita Bal, 18, blasted her way to victory in the doubles finals at the NeST-AITA tennis championships here on Friday afternoon, there was one man in the gallery who watched the match with the discerning eye of an expert, her father Nandan Bal, India’s Davis Cup Coach and three-time national champion.On his fourth visit to Thiruvananthapuram, Bal took some time off to chat with City Express, sharing his thoughts about tennis, his career as player and coach and the opportunities before fresh talents down south.Kerala is so different from hometown Pune with regards to sports, he says. Here, parents hope to see their children as doctors, engineers or civil servants as soon as they finish their studies.“The scene is entirely different in Pune, where sports is viewed as a career. There, people have wider access and there is a tournament structure. Many tournaments are happening in these areas and these players have easy access to any place in India to participate in tournaments,” he says.In his opinion, Kerala should host more tournaments so that players can participate without spending exorbitant sums or having to travel long distances. In Thiruvananthapuram, he says there are players who put in a lot of effort and their level is also going up. Instead of running a short-duration camp, if the players are given round-the-year coaching, they would definitely bring out their best.By today’s standards, Nandan started tennis at a rather late age. He was 11 when he started hitting the ball back and forth for exercise. That was in 1971. These days, parents are so keen to see their children enter sports by the time they are five, he says.Nandan began fully concentrating on tennis only by the age of 16. As a player, he was on the scene from 1977 to 1986. By 1985, his kitty was full with a silver at the World University Games held in Mexico, another silver at the Asian Games in New Delhi and three national championships.“Really, I thought I had become tired with too many matches and decided to train tennis players. From 1989 to 1999 I worked with the Batra Tennis Centre at Mumbai started by my friend Rajesh Batra in the fond memory of his father,” he said.From 1994 to 1998, he was coach for the Federation Cup. In 1999, he was appointed the coach of India’s Davis Cup team, a position he held up to 2001. After a short break, he was back again as coach in 2004.Bal does not have any objection with the celebrity status enjoyed by today’s players through ads and showbiz. “I have not seen players evading their work while indulging in acting or advertising. They give preference to their work first, be it Sania, Paes or Bhupathi. The career of a tennis player ends by the age of 35 or 36. Within that time, if they earn as much money as they can, what’s wrong with it?” he asks.Nandan’s wife Sheela Bal runs a Knowledge Processing Outsourcing centre in Pune. Elder daughter Nandita Bal is a student of Bio-Medical Engineering at Vellore Institute of Technology. Namita Bal, the younger daughter, is a student of Commerce at Briham Maharashtra College of Commerce at Pune.Nandan Bal has also mapped out the future, “I shall continue for some more years as a coach and then retire.”
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