Vishwa Deenadayalan, a budding 18-year-old Table Tennis player from Tamil Nadu, succumbed to injuries on the way to the hospital after being involved in an accident along with three other teammates on Sunday (April 17). The team was travelling by taxi from Guwahati to Shillong for the 83rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships, beginning on Monday (April 18).
A 12-wheel trailer coming from the opposite direction ploughed through the road divider and hit the taxi at Shangbangla, just after the Umliy check post, plunging the car into the gorge. The taxi driver died on the spot, and Vishwa passed away before reaching the Nongpoh Civil Hospital. The doctors declared him brought dead.
His teammates Ramesh Santosh Kumar, Abinash Prasannaji Srinivasan and Kishore Kumar suffered severe injuries. The organisers of the championships along with the Meghalaya government’s help, rushed them to the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) in Shillong for critical care. The team of doctors attending to them said the boys were stable.
Vishwa was a promising player with several national ranking titles and international medals to his credit. He was touted to represent India at the WTT Youth Contender at Linz, Austria, from April 27. A product of the Krishnaswamy TT Club in Anna Nagar, Vishwa was trained by Ramnath Prasad and Jai Prabhu Ram and also earned praise from Indian Olympian Sharath Kamal. The ace paddler rated him as a highly-talented boy with a lot of promise.
Vishwa’s rise to stardom was also steady. His transition from Cadet to Sub-Junior and then the Junior section was an eye-opener for any teenager aspiring to make it big. He won the Cadet and Sub-Junior National titles as well. The Loyola College student also won the U-19 Boys title during the Dehradun National Ranking Tournament in January 2022.
The Table Tennis Federation of India announced financial support of Rs 5 Lakhs for the bereaved. Vishwa's father and a couple of family members will be arriving in Guwahati tonight as his embalmed body will be flown to Chennai on Monday morning. The officials of the Meghalaya Table Tennis Association and the Ribhoi district administration at Nongpoh will oversee the completion of all the formalities and receive the bereaved family members at the airport.
Justice Gita Mittal, chairperson of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), condoled the unfortunate death of Vishwa and also spoke to Kishore Kumar, wishing him and other players a speedy recovery. SD Mudgil, the other member of the CoA, also spoke to a higher-ranked police official of Assam for a hassle-free clearance at the airport on Monday morning.
