As China’s table tennis talent flocks elsewhere, the migration needs to be kept in check
World Table Tennis CEO Steve Dainton says homegrown players must have enough opportunities to play at the highest levels too
SEATED on my right is Lay Jianfang, a table tennis player who represents Australia. And to my left is Shan Xiaona, a fellow China-born competitor who now holds a German passport.
They are getting ready to square off at a major tournament, and this scenario of China-born players facing each other but under different nationalities is happening more often.
The 41-year-old Shan has competed at the Olympic Games twice since 2016, while Lay, who is 51 this year, is more accomplished having appeared at the Olympics six times since 2000.
Singapore’s table tennis scene is not new to this practice of having China-born players representing the country. Over the years, we have seen the likes of Li Jiawei, Gao Ning, Feng Tianwei, Sun Beibei, Jing Junhong and Wang Yuegu all don the national colours at dozens of international events.
They have scooped up three medals – two silvers and a bronze – at the Olympics so far. Jing and Li also came agonisingly close to adding to that tally, having finished fourth at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, respectively.
One of the biggest achievements for Singapore in the sport came in 2010, when the trio of Feng, Wang and Sun defeated mighty China 3-1 at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow.
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World Table Tennis (WTT) chief executive officer Steve Dainton is one who feels that this migration of players from China to other countries is a “controversial subject” that has its merits.
Dainton, a 46-year-old Australian who took on the top job in August 2017, also believes that the cross-border movement of Chinese players has helped to give the sport a big boost on the global stage.
In a recent interview held at WTT’s office at Beach Road, he described this issue as a “philosophical one that needs a philosophical answer”.
The moves from China-born competitors to elsewhere, he noted, “came about because there were too many Chinese players in the top echelon of world table tennis”.
“But since there were only two major events a year, and with a restriction on the number of participants a country could field, there were many players ranked in the top 10 who could not find places in the China team,” he explained.
“The only way they can play is by migrating to other countries, and this exodus has led to them facing off and, in some cases, defeating their opponents who are playing for China.”
He admitted, however, that if this trend remains unchecked, it would “not be good” that the natural-born players of those other countries do not have enough opportunities to compete at the highest levels.
Since table tennis was introduced to the Summer Olympics back in 1988, only 38 players have represented China at the event. By contrast, at least 124 China-born players have competed for other countries.
Lee Bee Wah, the former president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association and a strong advocate for homegrown talent to wear national colours, weighed in on the matter.
“I don’t believe that you need to field China-born players for all competitions. There must be a transfer of potential to homegrown players, especially for the lower-ranked competitions,” said the former member of parliament.
She recalled how she wanted to field a lineup of purely homegrown players for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia. She did not quite get her wish, as the selection criteria at the time called for the Singapore Table Tennis Association to name players with “medal-winning chances”.
“I believe in exposure and a good balance,” she added.
Dainton, a former table tennis coach who is fluent in Mandarin, agreed with Lee that the issue must be seen in the right perspective, with sound application needed in the selection of players.
Over the past seven years since he has headed the WTT, he said that he has noticed the many “happy compromises” that have taken the sport to new heights. “More countries are fielding homegrown players, and that is a nice trend.”
When asked about China’s near-total dominance on the sport, having scooped up 37 of the 42 Olympic gold medals on offer so far, Dainton pointed to the likes of South Korea and Japan that are among the nations stepping up their game. He also saw huge positives from the fact that table tennis is being played in over 200 countries – making it just as wide-reaching as football.
The ongoing Smash series – the equivalent of tennis’ grand slams in terms of prestige – has been held in Singapore since 2021. This year’s Singapore Smash drew an audience of more than 160 million unique viewers over the course of the tournament.
Dainton said that WTT intends to stage up to four Smash series every year. The next time Singapore will host the Smash series is in March 2025.
Looking ahead, Dainton noted that WTT wants to professionalise the sport further with greater business development, better marketing and more sponsorship deals.
He shared how the prize money for table tennis tournaments have also increased significantly – from US$1.72 million in 2021 (when there were still many pandemic restrictions) to US$11.2 million this year.
The number of events has also gone up – from 42 in 2021 to 101 this year. Live broadcast viewership airtime in 2023 was 2,555 hours, attracting 250 million viewers. As of July this year, airtime stood at 4,500 hours with 126 million viewers.
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