INTERVIEW WITH THE LEAGUE'S FOUNDER-SHASHIN SHODHAN
SHASHIN SHODHAN HEADS AIGOPROTECT INSURANCE TEAM MILPITAS AND IS TIED FOR THIRD IN NUMBER OF VICTORIES IN THIS LEAGUE. (Photo by Kingston Gee)
California Table Tennis: What caused you to start this league?
Shashin Shodhan: I want to make my living from table-tennis so honestly, this was a for-profit venture and I hope sponsors, media, and spectators will grow every year. However, I also want to see the sport grow and started a club at my university UC Berkeley and founded the Northern California Division of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association where I got nothing financially.
California Table Tennis: How do you feel how the league has gone?
Shashin Shodhan: I am pleased because most of the players in the league are pleased with how it has turned out. If the players are happy, I am happy. The reactions of the sponsors, the players, and the media are what is most important to me and their reactions have been very positive. Joe Fonzi of KTVU-Channel 2, Raj Mathai of NBC11, Orlando Shih of KTSF-Channel 26, and others have been pleased with how their features have turned out. I am also very pleased that we have gotten media coverage from all sources and that there have been many spectators at many of the league matches and the players are taking this league very seriously even though it doesn't count for USATT rating. I am also happy that we have the backing of the ITTF and USATT for this league.
California Table Tennis: How do you plan to grow this league?
Shashin Shodhan: I am going to make a presentation about this league to the USATT Board in the first board meeting of 2006. I will try to start elite league divisions in Southern California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey/New York, and Texas. Through contacts, Bank of the West may be interested in being the title sponsor and the players could potentially compete for big money so hopefully, all the top players such as Cheng Yinghua, David Zhuang, Eric Owens, and others will compete in this league next year. I will try to talk to Robert Blackwell of Killerspin next time I see him to see if he would be interested in putting the nationwide league finals on ESPN through his contacts. If it is on ESPN, Bank of the West would likely be interested in being the title sponsor and putting up big money. I will try to have Killerspin be the title sponsor of these regional leagues and I will look for more sponsors for the Northern California league. I aim to have a salary cap for each team and players are paid a certain salary for playing in the league and I will aim to have owners (likely the club owners) for each league team that discuss with the players about the salary and who plays for each club. I will also aim to start divisions for all levels next year in this area and the other five mentioned areas and have all league matches count for USATT rating.
California Table Tennis: Will the structure of this league change? If so, how?
Shashin Shodhan: Next year, I plan to have 3 players on each team. If, for example, one player on the division 1 team for Oakland can not make a match, then someone from their division 2 team gets called up. This year, we had five players on each team and just one division so a team could choose three players from a team of five in each match. I will also introduce a salary cap where each team has a certain budget for paying their players and club owners and players will discuss who plays for which team like in pro sports as opposed to this year where I picked the teams. I also plan to add in a doubles match as recommended by league fan Mark Johnson who has attended many of the league matches. I have also started a board of directors for this league that will make all decisions for the league and discuss the league instead of all the decisions being made just by me. The board will have Michael Hyatt, Masaaki Tajima, Jackie Lee, John Springer, and me.
California Table Tennis: What is your goal for this league?
Shashin Shodhan: I want to see it be a huge nationwide league with all the top players in the world competing in it, with thousands of fans at matches, and televised nationally and internationally! How can this be done? Luckily, we have the strength of China in our sport where table-tennis is the national sport. I have some ideas on how to get some of the world's richest tech men in our sport as China is the world's largest market for tech companies and they talk about China and its huge potential for their companies. Bill Gates, for example, came to watch table-tennis for a few days at the 2000 Olympics so has interest in the sport. If I can get the richest men to support table-tennis and this league becomes a nationwide league next year, then I will approach NBA Commissioner David Stern about possibly having an NBA-affiliated table-tennis league to reach out to the Chinese market. David Stern is really eyeing China and its potential for the NBA and what better way to increase NBA revenue and appeal than to have a table-tennis league with NBA team names played in NBA arenas to reach out to the Chinese market. David Stern and 6 NBA Dream Team Members, Reggie Miller (in 1996), Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Allan Houston, and Steve Smith (in 2000) have come to watch table-tennis at the Olympics so they have interest in the sport. Ray Allen and Allan Houston wanted to play Khoa Nguyen at the 2000 Olympics and Jimmy Butler was called into the Dream Team housing to play with the 1996 Dream Team Members. Vince Carter, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dirk Nowitzki, Clyde Drexler, Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Anfernee Hardaway, Mike Dunleavy, and many other NBA players play ping-pong for fun so when I invite them to a ping-pong charity event to benefit children's education in India at the India Community Center next year, I will ask them to support a league like this if they come to the event. None of them probably know what a loop is, all of them probably think they're really good, but well, they probably know what the rules are. I will also invite David Stern, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sergey Brin of Google who talked about playing ping-pong on CBS' "60 Minutes", and many other big names to this charity event. I am going to tell them that Indians have contributed greatly to their companies so hope they will come to a charity event to benefit children's education in India at the largest India Community Center in North America. I will also tell Hollywood celebrities, many of whom already play ping-pong, that Indians have contributed greatly to the technical side of the entertainment industry so hope they will come to the charity event. I will tell David Stern that NBA has a "Read to Achieve" children's program so hope he will come to a charity event to benefit children's literacy in India. Through my sister's friend, I may also call someone who reports directly to someone who reports directly to Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle. I have seen interviews where Ellison and Gates talk about the big potential in China for their companies and Gates, Ellison, Brin, Bezos, and Stern are all well-aware that China is the world's largest market. One problem for Microsoft is pirated software and too many Chinese people would be out of work if the government completely cracked down on it. However, I have ideas for this and it can potentially be very beneficial to Microsoft. I got Bill Gates' email through someone at Microsoft and have already emailed Bill Gates all my thoughts. If I can get backing from NBA players and some of the world's richest men, then the lofty goals of this league could become a reality. I hope to be the Commissioner of this potential league and have started reading books such as "Financing Sport", "The Business of Sports", "Inside the Minds: The Business of Sports", "Principles and Practice of Sport Management", "Sports, Inc: 100 Years of Sports Business", and "Law and Business of the Sports Industries", five of which are very detailed and many hundreds of pages each, to learn more about this. I would make a rule that each team would have to have one North American in it so this would give North Americans something to really aim for. I would also make a rule that each team would have to have 2 Chinese players to keep China happy, 1 player from Africa, South America, or Oceania to help develop table-tennis in those continents, and 2 other non-Chinese players to give Europeans and non-Chinese Asians a big goal to aim for. I would also make a rule that each player would have to be paid a good amount in salary. However, I would also make a rule that players below a certain world-ranking would not be eligible to have more than the base salary. I would also have a developmental league like the NBA does. Will the world's richest men come to my charity event is the big question? Indians have contributed greatly to their companies and the event will be at the largest India Community Center in North America so I hope so.
California Table Tennis: What are your table-tennis playing goals?
Shashin Shodhan: I am considering playing 4-5 hours a day for two years (possibly by hiring a Chinese practice partner) before the 2008 Beijing Olympics and would like to win a medal there. With a team event and Fan Yiyong eligible to play for the US, there will be a chance to win a medal. Fan can hang with anybody in the world and lost close 5-set matches to World and Olympic Champions Wang Liqin and Liu Guoliang when they played in a tournament in Canada. Fan also told me "let's play doubles in some tournaments" so I won't say no to that. He may have said that since I was trying to come to Seattle and would have been paying him a lot of money but as I said, I won't say no to that. Table-tennis will also get more importance since table-tennis is the national sport in China. I would also like to play in the 2012 London Olympics, 2016 Olympics which will hopefully be in San Francisco, and playing in some World Championships would be nice too.
California Table Tennis: What do you do as your profession?
Shashin Shodhan: I am in a teaching credential program at James Logan High School which is the most diverse high school in the US and has 4,000 students. I am a student teacher in Algebra II and am taking some classes as well. I really like teaching and the students in my classes are cool. Besides liking teaching, I am also doing this as teaching is the only profession that lets you off by 3 PM so I can coach table-tennis in after-school programs. I am starting after-school programs at Challenger schools in the Bay Area. If this league does not work out, then I will be a high school math teacher and a table-tennis coach as my two professions.