The name D.G.Hathiramani is synonymous with the progress of table tennis in Ghana. Hathiramani was a naturalized Ghanaian of Indian origin, who single handedly produced more than 60% of Ghana’s table tennis stars spanning nearly four decades. Affectionately called “the table tennis servant of Ghana” he recruited youngsters with no table tennis background and trained them from scratch to become stars. He went to the extent of accommodating some of them, fed them and paid for their education.

The success of table tennis in Ghana so rested on “DG” that it was feared his absence in the future might spell the doom of the game in the country.

Those fears actually came to pass when after his death in the early eighties, the game began to slump in the country. A lot of effort was put up the sports authorities to keep the game afloat, but the need to get a Hathiramani to shoulder the burden of promoting a not too popular spectator sport in the country became a huge problem. There were a lot of trials and errors until about six years ago, when former national table tennis star Ebo Bartels accepted the responsibility of heading the table tennis association with a strong desire to bring back the good old days

A national champion in the seventies, Ebo Bartels is now a man of many parts. A former Air Force pilot, Ebo Bartels is a successful business executive and holds a degree in business administration. He is also a qualified lawyer.

His intrinsic interest in table tennis coupled with his acute business acumen and his capacity to establish useful contacts has helped him to lead the table tennis association into a strong unit with national recognition for unearthing talents.

The recent painstaking national exercise organized by the table tennis association to gather the best talents for the impending Africa Senior Table Tennis Championships in the Congo Republic, has won national approbation. It was a hectic examination involving the nation’s best 16 male players and the best eight females for the most outstanding four males and four females to represent Ghana in the championships

Appropriately dubbed “The D.G.Hathiramani Top 16” the two-day highly competitive trials picked Eric Agyemang of the Ghana Police Service, Derek Abrefa and Felix Lartey both from the Ghana Immigration Service and Bernard Joe Sam from the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) for the men’s division.

In the ladies category emerged Afua Oforiwa Owusu-Agyei of CEPS, Akosua Ketu from the Central Region, Beatrice Gyasi of the Ghana Police and Bernice Borquaye of the Ghana Navy.

It is noteworthy that the trials were sponsored by the Executors of D.G.Hathiramani’s Estate, Dr S.A.Quaye and Mr. Emmanuel Okai with support from Aqua-in Water Company and the Sports Council.

It is also significant that most of the players come from state institutions, which is a healthy signal that state institutions are once more prepared to help in the promotion of sports in the country.

Good luck to the team in their quest to gain honours for the country in the African championship and may the spirit of the late Hathiramani guide Ebo Bartels and his association members to keep the fire of table tennis and for that matter all the so called “lesser sports” burning