It is a historical fact that save for a few sports, notably hockey, badminton, table tennis and squash Asian countries have lagged behind their Western counterparts ‘on the world scene,
However, the reemergence of Europe, led by Sweden as a world power and the ‘eclipse of China at the recent 40th World Table Tennis Championships at Dortmund ‘West Germany is the culmination of a trend that has been evident over the last decade or so. This has been the systematic chopping and changing of rules and regulations, in hockey and table tennis in particular with the express aim of curtaining the dominance of the Asian nations.
As faras hockey is concerned, the major step in this disturbing direction was the introduction of astroturf for the first time at the 1976 Montreal Olympics which changed the whole complexion of the game, The result was a shift in the emphasis from the traditional skills of the Asian style especially of India and Pakistan to the hit and run physical methods adopted by European countries.
There have been a number of subtle and not so subtle alternations in the rules since then which have seen to it chat the balance of power has swung to the West. These days hockey at the international level more and more resembles football with long clearance s and aerial play. The emphasis ‘on penalty comers has robbed hockey of its greatest charm, the field goal which is at a premium in international matches these days,
Coming back to table tennis, the Asian domination began as far back as the 1952 World championships at Bombay where players from Japan stunned the sporting world with the introduction of sponge or “sandwich” rackets which brought a whole new dimension to the game, which hitherto had been dominated by the stonewalling tactics of the European players and their ‘wooden bats ideally suited for interminably tong rallies.
However, it was not until the Stockholm World Championships in 1954 that an Asian action, Japan, won the Swaythling Cup, the symbol of supremacy in the men’s (eam event. From then ail the 1987 chapter at New Delhi either Japan or China have emerged champions (except in 1973 and 1979 when Sweden and Hungary respectively won). The domination has been even greater in the women’s section. China has also dominated the individual events in both the men’s and women’s categories.
Obviously this trend had the European countries worried. The Chinese had in(conduced a number of innovations into the game which had helped to speed it up with short sharp rallies. While most sports would have welcomed this, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was unhappy about it. While one cannot dispute the fact that the vice like grip that the Chinese had exerted over table tennis was stifling competition, it is debatable whether they could be faulted for the same, After all, they had reached this position of strength through sheer hard work and years of research, In fact, they had dropped out of the world scene for some time and it was not until the 1959 World Championships (ironically enough) when they made their first real impact.
The use of funny rubbers, as they came to be called, introduced by the Chinese in the 70’s with all their unpredictably really floored the rest of the world. The unusual racket coverings cach with own characteristic, were the of years of trial and error by the Chinese. Even when other countries mastered the technology their players were not skillful enough (0 use them as effectively as the Chinese, The first step the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) took to stop the Chinese advance was to introduce standardization in the manufacture of these rubbers and allow only a few worldwide companies to bring out ITTF approved rubbers, The ITTF had also stepped in to ban the stamping of the server’s foot. This was practiced by the Chinese to mask the ‘sound of the ball on the racket by which the ‘opponent could prepare himself for the way the ball would reach him. Then in 1985, just before the Gothenburg World championships, the ITTF stipulated that one side of the racket should have a black rubber surface and the other side red rubber to enable an opponent to differentiate. The ban on foot stomping, strangely enough still holds good.
Despite China claiming all but one of the titles at both Gothenburg and New Delhi two years later, there were certain signs in 1987 that the Chinese were beginning to Took somewhat shaky.
By then the ITTF had also stipulated that while serving the ball had to be thrown up at least 15 cms (6 ins) from the palm of the hand placed above the table, The low toss serve had been for years a vital part of the Chinese armory. This particular rule is ‘one of the most difficult to enforce and the varying worldwide interpretations led to the controversy during the team final at Dortmund when Jiang Jialing refused to continue playing until the referee had been removed. The referee had penalized Jiang for not tossing the ball high enough in his match against JanOve Waldner.
Today’s international calendar is an extremely crowded one. Two more to umaments have been added on by the ITTF recently, the World doubles and World team championships. All these international meets, particularly the Europe Asia tournaments, have enabled the European players to get used to the Chinese methods, Earlier, except for the biennial World championships, the Chinese were loath to ‘expose their {op players to the international scene, preferring to use them as “secret weapons.” But now Chinese and European players face each other the year round and the aura of the oriental mystique has been shattered.
Though the ITTF is headed by the former Japanese World champion, Ichiro Ogimura, the European lobby is still very powerful. As long as international sporting bodies are dominated by the Western nations, Asian (and African) countries can continue to expect hard times ahead.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 26, 1989
