Shillong, June 18: The meeting of the South Asian Table Tennis Federation was held here today as a part of the ongoing SAF Table Tennis Championships. During the meeting the secretary-general of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), Dhanraj Choudhary, informed representatives from the SAARC countries that the TTFI was pleased to provide free board and lodging for all participants from the SAARC nations in the upcoming Global ITTF Junior Circuit event to be held both at Siliguri between October 10 and 14.

The meeting, chaired by DR Choudhary, secretary-general of the South Asian Federation, was attended by representatives from all the SAARC countries, sans Maldives. Taking the cue from TTFI, the Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation, represented by their tournament director Khondkar Hassan Munir, also extended a similar facility for their Global Junior event at Dhaka between October 17 and 21.

Choudhary, with his rich experience of organising such events, explained to Bangladeshi hosts and other members the modalities and directives of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and vital tips about hosting the events.

Incidentally, Bangladesh Federation is hosting such a big championship for the first time and Munir said that they want to organise it in a big way. “Since the TTFI has extended such a gesture, we would also like to do the same to help participants from our region,” said Munir.

Parrying questions from media personnel, Munir said Neelakanta Iyer Ganeshan, the ITTF competition manager, will be visiting Dhaka this month to see the facilities available there. “We want to visit him to see the facilities and advice on any additional needs before the competition,” said Munir.

Incidentally, Ganeshan has been named as the competition manager of the Global Circuit event at Dhaka. The Global circuit events are important for the players from the region as they will help improve their rankings in the world.