Ranbir Bhandari-The Living Legend
The other day I met a senior player, whom I had known since long and it had been a while since we were interacting from morning that day, he had been knowing me since the days we were playing together in the club, he had even visited Patiala in 1970, when I was working in The National Institute of Sports, Patiala. I had introduced him to Bhandari Sahab(Sh. Ranbir Bhandari) who had invited both of us for tea then. “THE TEA” was a very courteous invitation by Sh. Ranbir Bhandari and a prized occasion for us in the shivering February winters of 1970’s, moreover the discussion had during the tea was worth millions and it was on the Indian Table Tennis in comparison with the world. We were having the discussion of the day which was forty-five years ago and the greatest thing we were speaking on was the “TIME HAS CHANGED” and the kind of enigmatic gentleman, Shri Ranbir Bhandari is missed in the playing arena. Then my friend asked for a leave after dinner and the interaction which I had with my friend all day was hovering over my head. I had been knowing Sh. Ranbir Bhandari ji since the very occasion I was in national championships in Saharanpur, Uttat Prasesh in the year 1956, where he secured a gold medal finish in both men doubles and mixed doubles., He won the Mens Doubles as always partnering Sh Kalyan Jayant, with whom he had won numerous gold medals. He won the medal of the similar lusture in Mixed doubles partnering Ms Indira Iyengar, although his regular partner was Ms. Sayeed Sultana, with her he consistently won a gold medal finish for numerous years on a trot.
He was and is very senior to me and one thing I would quote on his kind of supremacy, is that, I have served in Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports, Patiala, Sports Authority of India(SAI) well over three decades, where I have not been in relation with a more commanding coach in the country than Sh. Ranbir Bhandari. I have been his colleague for about two decades in NSNIS, Patiala and it is more than enough time to gauge a gentleman Now I would quote on my experience with him. He was a “Master Craftsman” but has not ever been honoured for the said grace till date. What the coaches are contributing and hence producing now, had been confidently predicted by him six decades ago.
Any foreign coach who was hired then by The Govt. Of India was given a charge attached to Sh. Ranbir Bhandari..
The Govt. Of India put him in the Rajkumari Amrit Kaur Scheme before 1960.Then he was trained by Ivan Anderdise ( from Czechoslovakia ), World Championship medallist, in an ad-hoc course of coaching for three months.
After that Sh. Ranbir Bhandari took over as the Coach In-charge of Department of Table Tennis in Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports, Patiala. He trained the Table Tennis players who wanted to take up a career as a Table Tennis Coach.
Now when we speak of Sh. Ranbir Bhandari, how can anybody expect me not to quote the 1952 Asian Table Tennis Championships, Singapore ? Atleast I cannot be silent. Sh. Ranbir Bhandari is the Silver medallist in the said Asian Championship partnering Sh. Kalyanpur Jayant.. The said performance of him deserves to be quoted as the time I was under training by Sh. Ranbir Bhandari, many a times I used to ask him on the 1952 Asian Table Tennis Championships in Singapore as by then Ranbir Bhandari had become a household name and was regarded a lot. On this he used to say that at that time Hong Kong was on song always and now it is Japan strongly, they have innovated the sport and gave birth to the defence vertical in the sport and produced Hiroji Satoh, as the first World Champion with the innovation from Asia. He liked me as I was a defender and quoted me to be innovative. His love for the defenders does not end here, he was a very good friend of Mr. Richard Bergman from England who played five World Championship finals and won four. Bhandari sahab was nicknamed “RANI”, by his team-mates.
After his theory class was over I always asked for a practical example out of his box of experience and you all would not believe the fact he gave an example from his own on the table experience. .
Many a times in the classroom he spoke openly that we were living in Asia where Japan had taken rapid strides in making improvements and they are on their pinnacle. On the other hand he used to say that the Indian Table Tennis players lacked “Big Match Temperament”, this is the issue which would be keeping “Team India”, far from success. This was rightly declared by him then.
Being marked to the Rajkumari Amrit Kaur Scheme, he was mapped to The National Stadium, New Delhi. His training method was completely different and was beyond imagination. Due to the said he produced a flurry of International Table Tennis player both in Men and Women; but his almirah, still has an empty shelf awaiting the honour, which he deserves. The national and international players produced by him were:
1. Manjeet Singh Dua
2. Manmeet Singh
3. Deepak Vadhera
4. Sudheer Phadke
5. Ashok Keshwani
6. Devender Puri
7. Arun Raj Malhotra
8. Vinod Khanna
9. Inder Prakash
10. Balraj Mehra
11. G.S Mani
12. Pramod Narain
13. Manjula Singh
14. Indira Iyengar
15. Aruna Marwaha

This is a very big achievement and I am very sorry if I missed out any name. The list consists only the senior players having a reputation in India, rest he had followers everywhere. His contribution did not end here, heading as Departmental head of Table Tennis in National Institute of Sports where he served for about three decades, he produced ample of coaches through the coaching course(diploma) and many teachers through Certificate Course. During that period he was the national coach too. Any foreign coach hired was attached with him. He was deputed as the coach for all the international tournaments (viz. The World Championships, The Commonwealth Championships, The Asian Championships, The Asiad, etc.)
Referring to Shri. Ranbir Bhandari’s statement on “Big Match Temperament”, I conclude that Team India is short of, the following:
Yatin Vyas, J.M Bannerjee, Sudhir Thakersay, Uttam Chandrana and Ranbir Bhandari were team mates representing team India but their performance was not much to applaud as they used to succumb to their opponents as they lacked much of experience, thus they were short of “Big Match Temperament”. Presently the exposure is huge but the team is not having proper match potential and killer instinct to snatch a victory as they keep in mind the theory connoting “BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME”
In my career I have seen the following coaches who played in the training session with the players. One was Ivan Anderdese (Czecoslovakia coach) another was Mr. Ranbir Bhandari(India coach) and finally was Lee Deyang(Chinese coach). They gave a very tough time to the players in the sessions. Sh. Ranbir Bhandari was more focussed to be a practical coach and he led by an example by himself of what he wanted to be implemented by the players. To sum up he “Took up the torch” himself.
Moreover it is that no Indian coach ever dared to enter the arena and practice on the table against the representing TEAM INDIA. Only multi-ball is the prevalent fashion. I have worked with the latter two and Sh. Ranbir Bhandari often told me “Tapan, what practically I have experienced on the table that, is what I want to make the players training under me well prepared for”. Lee Deyang too described the same and highlighted on continuation, used to shout “Keep the ball in play”.
Sh. Ranbir Bhandari was very unhappy with the players for the kind of match temperament owned by them and often used to scold the players for lacking consistency in keeping the ball in play. He used explain that a coach can only be an excellent one if he/she has had a past playing experience in the arena where is coaching.
Bhandari sahab explained that a coach has to play, and should be comprehensive in doing so to teach his players the topic “TACTICAL TRAINING” in a match situation. I title him to be a book dripping with knowledge and experience. He got the opportunity to travel with. “The Richard Bergman Group” around the world including China to demonstrate the sport named “PING PONG” or “TABLE TENNIS”, The “The Richard Bergman Group” consisted of viz.
Richard Bergman(U.K)
Ranbir Bhandari(India)
Mai Văn Hòa(Vietnam)
Norikazu Fuji(Japan)
Richard Miles(USA)
The Big achievement of the great (The doubles specialist, Ranbir Bhandari ) was when he played the 1952 Bombay World Table Tennis Championships Quarter Finals with his mixed doubles partner Sayeed Sultana and Mens doubles Pre-Quarter finals with his partner Kalyanpur Jayant.
It was Shri. Ranbir Bhandari’s era when Indian Men had won a silver medal in 1957 Asian Table Tennis Championships in Manila, where China had finished with a bronze medal (behind India). The hierarchy continued of his era, where Indian Men Team defended its Silver medal in 1960 Asian Table Tennis Championships in Bombay, being the host.
These were figures which most of you may not be aware of and now I would quote a fact which needs to be described.
1987 was the year when the World Table Tennis Championships were held in New Delhi,India, The Legend Shri Ranbir Bhandari who had played the World Championship quarter finals(mixed doubles) in 1952 edition of the Worlds in Bombay, India was not even given an invitation to honour the World Championship as he was the Indian legend and hailed from the same city.
I who had been his student and colleage in NSNIS Patiala, was the coach of The IndianTeam and Manjeet Dua, Arjuna Awardee, his student was the manager of The Indian team. Manjeet and me with a few players had a discussion on this at length, were actually feeling the disgrace meted out to the legend.
Next what I would quote the incident in the 1987 World Table Tennis Championships, a fact actually, well maybe known to none : As quoted above Sh. Ranbir Bhandari (A doubles and mixed doubles specialist) had partnered Ms Sayeed Sultana to win record number of National titles in India, she was Shri Ranbir Bhandari’s partner when they(India) played mixed doubles quarter finals in the 1952 World Championship(35 years ago), then she had migrated to Pakistan. Ms. Sayeed Sultana was accompanying the Pakistan Team. The kind lady came to me and said she wanted to meet Bhandari sahab and wanted me to convey the same to him. I conveyed the same to him, but Bhandari sahab did not want to attend as he was not invited.
This is the kind of treatment, the thought of which does not encourage a person to take up a career in sports. The gentleman named Sh. Ranbir Bhandari is A Living Legend with no replacement of the kind of art he is blessed with, whose achievements speak volumes about his craftsmanship. His skill or craftsmanship was not honoured, even on playing World Championship Pre-Quarter, also a Quarter and then India winning Silver medals in Asian Championships. That was not all, he contributed as the chief Coach of Table Tennis in India extravagantly, so much so that the players he produced won international titles and even have got The Arjuna Award, which stamped an approval of him being an excellent coach who is a performer. He has not been honoured for it even till now.
As I wrote in the beginning of the write-up, the shelf of his almirah is still lying vacant to hold the honour Sh. Ranbir Bhandari deserves to receive since ages. He is optimistically anxious for that day, believes to realise that day soon.
I spoke to him at length before writing this and Sh. Ranbir Bhandari I would say is a very optimistic person and he knows it well that if the sport had been marketed well he would be a different figure in the country.