Darius Knight hits out at British mentality

By George Scott

THERE are few teenagers from Wandsworth who would want to spend their summer holidays at a detention camp in China - but Darius Knight is the exception to the rule.

HEADING EAST: Darius Knight to head to China to seek self-improvement

Knight is hailed as one of the great hopes of English table tennis but is having to head to the Far East to get the quality of training he needs.

The 19-year-old's rise to table tennis prominence is well documented.  Saved from a life of drugs and crime in south London, he is now England's No.2 behind Paul Drinkhall and the urban face of Fred Perry.

But his story is one which will be mirrored by many who fell the wrong side of the line and were not so lucky as to carve a path in sport.

And Knight, a former Australian Youth Olympic Festival gold medallist, is convinced the problems are engrained in the UK's sporting institutions.

"In England, if you're in secondary school and you're good at sport then you still have to go to school. In China you can still concentrate on sport and maybe do less hours at school," he said.

"Here they're more interested in making money from the public instead of making the best for their sports people and giving them the best possible facilities.

"The culture is completely different in China - the system is much better out there so they can have ten Dariuses instead of one.

"I'll be going out there for three months and it's going to be like a detention camp.  There will be no distractions,  I won't be in my environment and I'll learn to adapt and play with the best players in the world.  It will be 24-hour table tennis."

The sport has endured a downturn in fortunes since its hey-day when 6000 spectators gathered in the Royal Albert Hall for the 1953 Mirror Finals - at this year's Dunlop Masters there was barely a thousand.

HEAD TO HEAD: Paul Drinkhall and Darius Knight in action at the Dunlop Masters (Getty Images)

The British Table Tennis Federation is strapped for cash after the £2.53 million received in the lead-up to Beijing was slashed to £1.2m for 2012.

Knight has borne the brunt of such cuts.  In 2001 he was invited to live at the prestigious National Training Centre in Nottingham but a shortage of cash forced the centre to close in 2004 and Knight moved back to his council estate in London.

Now, based at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, the three times national under-21 champion is critical of the support elite athletes in minority sports receive.   

"Sometimes we train from 9am to 12.30pm and 4pm to 7pm but on a Tuesday we have to finish at 10am and 6pm because there is karate," he said.

"If you compare the karate to us, they're not a national team, they're just a hobby club.

"In China the best have priority.  In every city they have table tennis clubs, badminton clubs, athletics clubs, even sports they're not good at but are trying to improve at.

"In England we have a national centre in Sheffield and London but in China they have a national centre in every city.

"They put a lot more money in sport, their system is better and they're guaranteed to get a lot more out of it. If you look at the Olympic medal table then China are killing it - their system and set-up is just right."

Drinkhall and Knight excelled at junior level but both have recently stepped up to senior level, with the former enjoying a baptism of fire at the World Championships in April.

Knight, on the other hand, will be making his first major senior appearance at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships next week and he is adamant he can make his mark in Glasgow.

"It's a very strong tournament and I want to start slowly and get some good wins. I don't want to say that I want to get to the final but if I play well then maybe I can get there and maybe I can win it," he added.

"The long term plan is the 2010 Commonwealth Games and our target there is to at least take some medals.

"We will be playing against the best in the world because Singapore have three or four players who are in the top 50 in the world.  Nigeria have one player who is number six in the world while my ranking is only 330.

"It's not enough to work hard in practice, you need to execute it in the matches. You can have a world champion practice player but in a tournament he's the number one bottler.

"If we can start beating these guys then in 2012 we'll be on our way to having a chance of getting a medal."