The lockdown has forced people to think outside the box of their chosen professions and wear new hats, and Mudit Dani — a Mumbaikar who is the country’s sixth-ranked table tennis player — has donned that of a chat show host. The 21-year-old has started a series called In the Sportlight, available on Instagram and YouTube. In it, he invites some of the country’s top sports personalities to pick their brains, and provide insights on life that relate not just to the sporting arena, but also beyond.
The people involved so far include stalwarts like Leander Paes and Abhinav Bindra, apart from fellow paddlers such as G Sathiyan and Manika Batra. Dani tells us that the idea hit him when people started asking him questions about sports during the lockdown and instead of answering them individually, he thought, why not have a full-fledged chat show to shed light on the subjects? With that in mind, he went about getting in touch with players who were already on his contact list, and sending messages on social media to others, requesting them for their time. There is no external team that helps him out with the process of putting each episode together, and the youngster says that the conversations have been a valuable learning experience for him as well.
Dani and Leander Paes in an episode from the show
He says, “One of the most important things I learnt from Abhinav Bindra is how you need to execute things in training to be able to do the same in a match. It sounds really simple, but it’s an extremely important message for all sports people, across the board. Leander Paes spoke about perseverance, and the grind that you have to go through for years and years before anything happens. There are lots of ups and downs in that journey, and how you manage them is what separates a top athlete from anyone else.”
Dani adds that some of the conversations also focused on what the future of sports looks like after the lockdown, sharing that one of the solutions being discussed is making people in racquet sports wear latex gloves in their non-playing hand to minimise the risk of infections spreading through the balls. The guest on his next show, out today, is Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Youth Affairs And Sports. Catch it to find out what the official opinion is on this timely subject.
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