During late seventies and early eighties, he was the best defensive Table Tennis player in Maharashtra. Elder brother of Former international S.Sriram, Sridhar Srinivasan, popularly known as S.Sridhar won many major ranking tournaments in Mumbai , with his solid defence game. He used to move far away from table to cut the ball hit by his opponents, using his variations in defence. Sometimes, he used to surprise his opponents, by suddenly coming close to the table to counter attack with his smashes.
Besides representing Maharashtra team, Sridhar also played a very important role, winning many team tiles for his Dena Bank team, with his celebrity team mate international Kamalesh Mehta , who was 8 times national champion. Sridhar after retiring from competitive table tennis , gave international Umpiring exams .He also passed the advanced examination in London and since 2001 has umpired all World Table Tennis championships. Now, he will be the only Indian TT Umpire for the Rio Olympics.
Magzmumbai met Sridhar at the MSL TT championship at NSCI , Mumbai when he was discussing about his selection for Olympics, with his former team mate Kamalesh Mehta. “ It is not only your passing the exams, which qualifies you for this big event in the world; but they also watch your overall performance at the various major tournaments held in the world,” he concluded , with a smile on his face.
Having himself played at the top level, he has lots of practical experience of the game. Sridhar will leave for this big event on 2nd of next month. Our best wishes to him, to establish himself as the best TT Umpire in the world.