Manesar (Haryana), January 30: One cannot think of any national table tennis championships without either A. Sharath Kamal or Soumyajit Ghosh, representing the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB). If not both, at least one of them has always been the face PSPB in team events for more than a decade. But the 78th edition of the 11Even Sports Senior Nationals, beginning at the Manesar Sports Club here from tomorrow, makes a clear departure from this routine.

Left out in the lurch by PSPB, the only two Indians in the top 100 of the world ranking, Ghosh found a right niche in hosts Haryana Table Tennis Association and will represent them in the team event. It may be too early to count the chicken before the eggs are hatched. Nevertheless, the hands of last year’s runners-up squad have been strengthened definitely as Ghosh is in the good company of Jubin Kumr and Sourav Saha, the two most experienced paddlers.

PSPB has, however, has honoured Sharath with his singles entry. Even otherwise, Sharath’s preference is to play the singles, making way for young guns to boom. Sharath, making his maiden zonal appearance this season, proved his detractors wrong with a fine title win at Vizag in more than six years. And mind you, he began from the scratch and played the qualifiers!

Yet, the supremacy of PSPB as reigning champions, be it in the men’s section or in the women’s category, hasn’t been questioned for quite a while and one doesn’t see that happening here either. In other words, with a steady supply line and an excellent team ethics, the PSPB have held a sway over the Barna Ballack Cup and Jayalakshmi Cup for several years.

The firepower in their arsenal is a further proof of that as Anthony Amalraj, G. Sathiyan, Sanil Shetty, Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar—the youngest to join the squad—are more than good enough to lend solidity which most teams can only dream about.

For now, the contest for the men’s team championships looks to rest with PSPB, Haryana and Gujarat, who did well to enter the semifinals along with Maharashtra, who have the very talented Ravindra Kotiyan, loaned to them by the Railways. AAI, too, has a strong team and they would like their players to go beyond the quarterfinals.

Again, their women’s team is minus veteran K. Shamini, another first in several years as PSPB has preferred to invest on relatively young legs while mixing it with the experience of Mouma Das, Madhurika Patkar, twice zonal champion, Mousumi Paul, a bright prospect, along with reigning singles champion Manika Batra and Reeth Rishya.

If at all any challenge to their authority, it should come from either West Bengal or the Airports Authority of India. Suthirtha Mukherjee, who has had a good season, including surprising everyone with the institutional crown, Krittwika Sinha Roy, Anindita Chakraborty, also a Railways veteran and two young players in Moumita Datta and Shreya Ghosh, will strive hard to improve West Bengal’s image while AAI will bank on its young brigade Archana Kamath, Ayhika Mukherjee, Sreeja Akula, Chipia Frenaz and Shailu Noorbasha to turn it around for them.

Of course, the championships will also see a record number of teams participating—35 in men and 32 in women—making the event more momentous. The teams here have been divided into eight groups of four and five in the men’s draw while it’s four teams each in women’s affair.

The first three days will witness team championships with the finals slated for February 2. The next three days will see an intense fight brewing in singles with the total prize money of Rs 9.58 being the additional lure, the ranking points notwithstanding.  The doubles, which now carry substantial prize money, will equally be riveting.  

Matches will be played on 13 tables in three adjacent halls with Stag International providing synthetic flooring and tables. Another departure of the nationals here is shunning the seamless balls for ones with seams, the practice followed in all international tournaments abroad. Hence, TTFI will be using DHS balls, which was the official ball at the Rio Olympics, according to competition manager N. Ganeshan.

Ganeshan will have a battery of technical officials, led by referee A.S. Kler, his deputies in Anil Dubey, T.G. Upadhyay, C.L. Thade, Atoor Satheese and Atul Dubey. Besides, there will be Blue Badge, international and national umpires, numbering 55, to support and supervise the matches in a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. schedule.