Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has decided to conduct the South Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships 2013 at New Delhi from July 20 to 22 instead of Ranchi. The communication gap between the State Government departments in coordinating the game led to this shifting decision.
On Thursday, Jharkhand State Table Tennis Association Secretary Jai Kumar Sinha informed the State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs department that are unable to host the game. “State Table Tennis Association informed us on Thursday that due to scarcity of time they are unable of manage this game,” said State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Secretary Vandana Dadel.
TTFI General Secretary General Dhan Raj Choudhary had visited Ranchi on April first week to discuss over this matter with the association officials.
Talking to The Pioneer, Choudhary conceded, “TTFI had approached Jharkhand because of its peaceful hosting of the 34th National Games in February 2011. Khelgaon has the infrastructure set up to host this game. We wanted to hold the three day grand event at Ranchi but received no confirmation from the concerned sports department for a long time. Since, only a month is left for this game to begin so we decided to organize the South Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships 2013 at New Delhi. We are not aware why the department did not confirm on organizing this international level indoor game.”
“TTFI took this decision three days back after State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs department did not give any confirmation on TTFI’s submitted proposal,” added Choudhary.
Sharing his association hurdles in organizing this game, State Table Tennis Association Secretary Jai Kumar Sinha said, “We had submitted a proposal on hosting this game to the state government on May 16 but failed to receive a confirmation from any of the government departments till now. Because of this reason we were bound to cancel the plan. Moreover, there are hardly few days left for the game and it takes time to gather sponsors for such a major sports event. The indoor stadium at Khelgaon is at a pathetic condition which needs renovation.”
Prior to Jharkhand, TTFI had approached Sikkim for hosting the game this year but the stadium there is under construction. This tournament was last held at Shillong in 2012.
The table tennis tournament would be held at the Junior (18 years) and Sub Junior (15 years) level cadets. As many as 100 to 150 participants comprising boys and girls separately from seven countries would be participating in this championship including India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri lanka and Bhutan.
Winner of this South Asian tournament will represent at the Asian Zone Junior Table Tennis Tournament to be held at Qatar in September this year. Those who qualify this Asian level would be playing at the World Championship.