Table tennis stalwart Chandra loses fight to Covid-19

Chandra, as he was popularly known, was 64. He is survived by his wife and son. The Arjuna awardee was admitted to a Chennai hospital a week ago after testing positive and was on ventilator support after developing severe lung complications.

Former national table tennis champion Venugopal Chandrasekhar, whose career was cruelly nipped in its prime after a botched knee surgery that left him crippled and permanently battling for health, died in Chennai on Wednesday due to Covid-related complications.

Chandra, as he was popularly known, was 64. He is survived by his wife and son. The Arjuna awardee was admitted to a Chennai hospital a week ago after testing positive and was on ventilator support after developing severe lung complications.

Once hailed as a "glamour boy" of Indian sport, the Chennai icon was a three-time national champion and was riding the crest of his career--including a quarter-final appearance at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane before his world came crashing down in 1984.

That year, what should have been a simple knee procedure for a cartilage injury turned into a life-threatening event at Chennai's Apollo Hospital. The operation required general anesthesia, and its excess led to severe brain damage, leaving his mobility, speech and vision heavily impaired.

Chandra was left to battle for life, struggling to even do routine things.

“There are times when I stumble on the footpath, and people have thought that I was drunk,” he wrote in his 2006 memoir “My Fight Back From Death’s Door”, describing the pain of daily life.

It also led to a prolonged battle between the hospital and the player before the Supreme Court awarded monetary compensation. The court awarding over Rs.15 lakh came almost a decade after the operation and five years into the lawsuit. But it was a path-breaking win by Chandra as it was unheard of that an individual in India could sue a hospital for negligence and emerge successful.

Following the court awarding damages, the hospital presented an apologetic anesthetist at a media conference attended by this reporter but argued that Chandrasekhar should have avoided petitioning the court and that such a verdict would only encourage “medico-legal cases in the country like in the US”.

Chandrasekhar fought through his severe physical problems and turned into a successful coach in the game he had helped popularise in the city. Having coached many top players, he was director and head coach of the SDAT TT Academy in Chennai at the time of his death.

Indian TT legend Kamlesh Mehta, whose rivalry with Chandrasekhar was building up when it was cut short, spoke fondly of their association.

“He was friendly on and off the court. It was he who made topspin popular in India. He learned the skills at (former world champion and World No.1 Ichiro) Ogimura’s academy in Japan,” he told PTI. “I spoke to him the day he got admitted to the hospital (May 8). Who would have thought he would leave us all so soon.”

S Raman, Chennai-based former national champion, who also briefly trained with Chandrasekhar and now trains the Tokyo Olympics-bound G Sathiyan, spoke of Chandrasekhar’s passion for coaching.

“He was coaching a lot of local players in Chennai. He was pretty good at grooming young talent. Coming from that era, his main goal was to produce national level players. Now with globalisation, our generation, including mine, look at producing international players, Olympic medalists," Raman said. “He was a great fighter. He fought on the table and off it; with the system while he was a player, in the court rooms against the hospital, against coma. That's a great virtue youngsters can learn from him as sportspersons—to fight against all odds and keep fighting till the end. He could've just given up on his life, given what he had to go through. But he went through it with all grace and dignity,” Raman added.