TT: Chance for fringe players to benefit

With the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) getting the pride of place in all the four categories—Men, Women, Youth Boys and Youth Girls—based on their last edition’s performances, there may not be much change to the title aspirants’ scripts.

No doubt, both Sharath Kamal, top ranked (43) Indian in the world and K. Shamini will not be there, but then the players of the calibre of Soumyajit Ghosh, Anthony Amalraj and Sanil Shetty in men’s category and Manika Batra, Ankita Das and Madhurika Patkar in the women’s section, things are decided more or less in their favour, barring any hiccups.

This also means the next best teams like the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), hosts Airports Authority of India (AAI), Central Revenue Board, the Reserve Bank of India, who have all invested in youth besides LIC and a few others have the onerous task ahead of them in the men and women’s sections of the team events.

AAI, however, seem to have pitted strong players in both the Youth Boys and Girls sections and, on their day, can even upset the best teams in business like the PSPB. The hosts will keep their eyes on the qualification spots for the Junior and Youth Nationals to be held at Alleppey later this year.

The job is easier said than done as it will be PSPB teams that every rival would like to watch out for. Like most other top contenders, the PSPB too have changed their outlook a bit by pitting the younger lot this time. That is a plus for the championships.

The team championships finals in the men and women’s categories will be played on Tuesday and what follows will be even more interesting with every paddler worth his name will be trying their hands at the individual events for the top prize purse in all sections.

A good outing by players here will see a few of them getting the Asian Games berth with the core teams, more or less, decided.

“But there are some fringe players who, if they perform well, will be considered for the Incheon Asian Games,” said Dharaj Choudhary, TTFI secretary-general.

“We will use nine new Stag 1000 DX international model tables for the team championships while half a dozen more tables will be added for the individual events that begin from Wednesday. Nittaku white balls and Stag flooring will be used during the championships,” said competition manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer. A. S. Kler will be the chief referee and he will be assisted by 30 technical officials from all around the country.

Image: Wikimedia Commons