By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
PING pong could be a smash in Greater Dandenong – but it lobs short of the facilities needed for its potentially vast pool of players.
The Dandenong Table Tennis Association has outgrown its base at Dandenong Oasis with players lining up for tables and no room for juniors to train on competition nights.
Despite the constraints, the association has produced London 2012 Olympian Robert Frank and eight national champions.
President Hua Hu said: “We’re getting by.
“The sport’s popularity here is steady over the past 10 years but it could be bigger if we had a venue to run programs for kids and for us.”
Greater Dandenong Council is conducting a feasibility study into possible locations for table tennis in the municipality.
The council-owned Springers Leisure Centre in Keysborough, which is used for basketball and badminton, has been suggested as an under-utilised possibility.
However the DTTA considers the venue to be too far from its traditional base.
Councillor Heang Tak said table tennis was a popular, traditional sport among the city’s burgeoning south Asian community but it needed a large training hub to encourage more players.
“Table tennis is such a well-known sport. Anyone can join in.
“It has a range of benefits – it would encourage people to get out, meet their neighbours and get active.”
Last week Olympian Miao Miao backed the push after he saw the cramped make-shift facilities at a multicultural table tennis tournament at the Cambodian Association, Springvale.
She said juniors needed proximate venues five to six days a week in order to be coached at elite level.
Ms Miao was born in China – a traditional ping pong nation – where children play the game at school and train after school almost every day at district sports centres.
“When you consider children are training once or twice a week here, it’s a big difference between us and China and Europe,” Ms Miao said.
“It’s hard for juniors to otherwise get to the next level.
“I’ve been a professional table-tennis player all my life.
“I love the sport and I’d like to develop this sport, especially when a lot of people play in this area.
“If you could have one or two centres here, it would be convenient for parents – they won’t have to spend so long on the road to take their children after school.”
Table Tennis Victoria chief executive Anne King agreed there was a great need in Greater Dandenong, especially given its well-suited demographics.
She said the nearest major centre was in Mornington Peninsula Shire, with possibly another on its way in the Frankston council area.
However, she said that few players in Greater Dandenong would be prepared to regularly travel that distance.
“We can feel the swelling of interest but we don’t have the number of clubs to cope at this stage.
“You would appreciate the level of competition of playing AFL and the availability of that sport compared to a sport that requires parents to drive their kids further away.”
She said memberships – the highest of any Australian state – had been rising over the past two years and that the number of elderly players was booming.
“There’s a real push for the elderly to get active.
“Even if you’re 100, you can play table tennis.”
