Siliguri, October 22: Considering what one experienced in terms of entries at Aizawl, where last year’s 11Even Sports National Ranking (East Zone) Table Tennis Championships were held, the one beginning at SMC Indoor Stadium here tomorrow will see an increase of 30 percent in participation.

The reason for lesser participation in Mizoram was understandable as players, especially the top guns, choose to skip the season-ender because they were cagy about travelling to the northeastern hill state that was conducting a major event for the first time. Additionally, players were not familiar with the facilities available there.

But there are no such issues at Siliguri. The city, made familiar and popular by two Olympians in Soumyajit Ghosh and Ankita Das, has attracted 700-odd paddlers for the event, which is only the third this season. Players, especially those in the reckoning for Team India selection with next year’s CWG and Asian Games staring at them, also know how important it is to be figuring among top five in the ranking chart.

Yet, both A. Sharath Kamal and G. Sathiyan will not be seen in action because of their pre-occupation with tournaments abroad. This situation has, however, presented local ‘boy’ Ghosh with a good opportunity to go for a shot at what could be season’s first crown, with only Anthony Amalraj, who won back-to-back men singles titles at Indore and Dharwad, standing in the way. Of course, Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty will be asking questions about their supremacy. Then there are the usual challengers like Subhajit Saha, Sourav Saha, Jubin Kumar, Devesh Karia, Sushmit Sriram and the up-and-coming Arjun Ghosh and Manav Thakkar. All of them can pose problems to the best in business.

In women singles, reigning champion Madhurika Patkar, former national champions Manika Batra—she won the crown at Dharwad (South Zone)—Mouma Das and Poulami Ghatak along with Central Zone title-holder Pooja Sahasrabuddhe, Ankita Das and Suthirtha Mukherjee will complete a full list of women paddlers who are in fray at Siliguri. Of late, Ayhika Mukerjee has joined the ranks of these biggies and keeping a tight leash on the seasoned players.

Junior paddler Archana Kamath, yet to find her feet in higher category but considered a danger when on song, needs to get her priorities right. Touted as a prospective candidate at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires next year along with Manav Thakkar, she needs a good measure of encouragement as well as competitions.  

In Youth, Junior, Sub-Junior and Cadet sections, dramatic changes have been taking place with the emergence of several new faces, always breathing down the necks of the trusted ones. So much so, we have over a dozen paddlers across all sections like Sreeja Akula, Selenadeepthi Selvakumar, Prapti Sen, Swastika Ghosh, Anusha Kutumbale, Nithyashree Mani, Varuni Jaiswal, Moumita Datta, Munmun Kundu, Suhana Saini, Diya Chitale, Pritha Vartikar, Nehal Venkatasamy among girls and Payas Jain, Yashansh Malik, Jayabrata Bhattacherjee, H. Jeho, Anukram Jain, Hrishikesh Malhtra, Preysh Raj, Shantesh Mapsekar and Amav Aggarwal among boys. With a long list of young players doing consistently well, the future of table tennis in India seems to be well entrenched.

Meanwhile, Competition Manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer said that A.S. Kler has been nominated as chief referee for the competitions here with three deputy and assistant referees and 40 technical officials that include Blue Badge, International and National umpires, mostly drawn from eastern region.

Equipment from Stag—synthetic flooring, tables and balls (senior, youth and junior sections only) and GKI balls (for sub-junior and Cadet)—will be used for the championships with the matches scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on the opening day.