Players' performance come for praise

New Delhi, March 21:  The topic of discussion at the platinum jubilee Annual General meeting (AGM) of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) held here last weekend was the players’ performance in the year goneby and the chances of Indian paddlers’ qualification for the Olympics and how they should approach the forthcoming World Championships in Dortmund, Germany, beginning March 24. The paddlers are currently training at Vienna , preparing for the world meet.   The secretary-general of TTFI, Dhanraj Choudhary, said the Indian paddlers had a very good chance of qualifying for the London Games during the qualifiers in Hong Kong next month. The AGM also approved signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Banglore-based Tenvic under which the company will provide avenues for developing the skills of Indian coaches, besides giving a feedback on areas where players have to improve. Vasanth Bharadwaj, a former nunior national champion, and who is one of the directors of the company run by former India skipper and leg-spinner Anil Kumble, gave a power point presentation on the various aspects of the activities of the company.   The house honoured 95-year-old T.D. Rangaramanujam with the Life Time Achievement award for his services to promote the game in his long career as secretary, president of the TTFI since 1946. The house also honoured both Kamlesh Mehta and Indu Puri, the eight-time winners of singles title in men and women’s category, respectively.  What made the AGM special was the power-point presentation on federation’s glorious 75 years of existence and achievements by players, including the medals won by them during various period. Meanwhile, Choudhary informed the house that India would be hosting two international events in the country-South Asian Junior Championships in Shillong between July 19 and 24, and the Indian Junior and Cadet Open , a global Junior Circuit event, between October 10 and 14, at at Siliguri. Choudhary also said that India will host the World Junior Championships in 2013 with Hyderabad being the likely venue.  He said the Andhra Pradesh Table Tennis Association has expressed willingness to host the event and a decision will be made on this after inspection of the benue and other facilities. As for the domestic calander, he said  zonal championships have been allotted to different states-the North Zone Championships (Haryana), East Zone  hampionships (West Bengal), South Zone Championships (Karnataka) Central Zone Championships (Madhya Pradesh), West Zone Championships (Gujarat )-and the venues will be decided by respective state affiliates.   This year’s Inter-Institutional Championships will be hosted by Ordnance Factory. Tamil Nadu has agreed to host the Sub Junior and Cadet National championships while Bihar will conduct the Junior and Youth National Championships. The senior nationals have been allotted to Chattisgarh.