Kolkata, December 22: The 77th Cadet & Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Chamionships, beginning here at the Netaji Indoor Stadium tomorrow, may have been truncated to five days, instead of the normal six days because of local compulsions, but it will in no way be reduced in substance.

That is the impression one gets at the group draws of the two sections with Petroleum Sport Promotion Board Academy (PSPBA) boys and Karnataka girls getting the top-perch positions in the sub-junior category, owing to their medal winning performance in the previous edition at Rajahmundry a year ago.

In the Cadet section, too, the PSPBA boys have understandably received top billing with the Maharashtra girls occupying the top slot in the team event.

Without a doubt the PSPBA boys are expected to retain both the Cadet and Sub-Junior titles, thanks largely to their strong bench strength with the likes of Anukram Jain, Jeho Hinakulhpuingheta and Alberto Lrruata in their ranks. But there are teams like Delhi or, for that matter, Gujarat which have paddlers like Shivjit Singh Lamba and Manush Shah, respectively, apart from hosts’ Soumyodip Ghosh, to name a few who are capable of firing on all cylinders when the going gets easy. However, the most dangerous would the players from Maharashtra who finished runner-up last season.

As for the sub-junior girls, the contest looks to be a two-way horse with Maharashtra and hosts West Bengal fighting it out for the top honours. Karnataka, the holders, are no longer having the services of Archana Kamath and that leaves a big gap despite having Kushi Viswanath and Anagrya Manjunath in their ranks to fill it.

This makes the job easier for Maharashtra, with Manushree Patil, Swastika Ghosh and Diya Chaitale to stitch a formidable combination together and West Bengal with Prapti Sen, leading the charge for the hosts. But one can never discount the presence of Delhi which has Lakshita Narang or North Bengal with Nikita Sarkar. Even Tamil Nadu with Esther Agnes Johndurai can pose challenges.

Coming to the Cadet sections, the field is wide open for two reasons. One, the five national ranking championships before the nationals has thrown open the floodgates for talented players to show their prowess. Among them were Vishwa Deenadayalan and VArun Ganesh of Tamil Nadu, Payas Jain of Delhi, Divyansh Srivastava of UP, Rudra Narayan Ghosh of West Bengal have all have put up promising showing with the few consistent ones claiming the titles. In other words, whoever withstands the pressure and pulls along with their teammates are the ones that will take their team to the trophy.

Similarly, Kavyasree Baskar of Tamil Nadu, Lakshita Narang of Delhi, Anagrya Manjunath of Karnataka, Keyal Shah of Maharashtra and Bhaavitha Nagulapalli of Telangana are all can be game changers on a given day in Cadet girls category. But what remains to be seen is how they shape up when a team event needs a lot of courage and maturity.

According to Competition Manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer, Donic and Stiga will be the equipment suppliers for the championships which will have Anil Dubey as the chief referee and A.S. Kler, his deputy.

Teams have been divided into eight groups in each of the four categories and with the number of days reduced, there is going to be a busy nad lengthy schedule, sometimes stretching up to 11 p.m. despite an 8 a.m. start. This means all the 60 umpires officiating here will have to be on their toes and be willing to put in extra hours from the day after.

The formal inauguration is slated for tomorrow at 5.30 p.m. and it will be followed by one round of matches in all the four sections.