Panaji, March 25: Goa could well be the city to host next year’s Commonwealth Table Tennis championships. According to Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) secretary-general Dhanraj Choudhary, the Goa Table Tennis Association (GTTA) is one of the bidders to host the event.

The TTFI general-secretary said he was happy to consider Goa for the event in which about 25 countries from the Commonwealth will participate. “We will place Goa’s bid along with others before the committee before arriving at a decision. But, I am sure GTTA has the wherewithal to successfully conduct an event of this size.”

Talking to media on the plus points of Goa, Choudhary said that the city had successfully hosted the Lusofonia Games in January this year and the GTTA has shown their capability through the conduct of the ongoing Road to Nanjing Series as well as the Global Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships.

Elaborating further on the championships, the top official of the TTFI said that originally New Delhi was to host the RTN series and the Global Junior circuit events. “But after seeing the ideal infrastructure here and GTTA expressing itself to be the hosts, we shifted the two events to Goa,” said Choudhary.

The moment we announced the shift to the participating countries, the players and officials were too pleased with the change in venue. “That’s why you see a good number of participation. Additionally, we have 27 junior and cadet paddlers are participating besides Goa, as hosts, getting four entries,” he added.

Taking a cue from the TTFI secretary-general, the GTTA president, Vero Nunes also said that he has already approached the Goa government for setting up an academy for the sport exclusively in Goa. “I have already mooted the proposal and sent it to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. Hopefully, it will be cleared,” said Nunes.

Talking on the proposed academy, Nunes said that the GTTA would like to have at least 25 paddlers to begin with. “We will have half that number reserved for Goans while the other half will cover the rest of country and even from neighbouring countries. The academy will uplift the standard of table tennis in the state. We will request from TTFI to help bring a foreign coach also to help our players hone their skills,” said Nunes.

Even otherwise, the GTTA is planning to have a North Korean coach coming here for 20 days to hold a camp in the city to help our players. “The TTFI has agreed to this arrangement and we will soon have the coach taking a three-week camp here,” added Nunes.

Choudhary said India’s team members are on a twin-tour of Germany and Spain from yesterday to prepare themselves for the two major events—the CWG at Glasgow (Scotland) in July-August and the Asian Games at Incheon (South Korea) in September. “We have regular national camps at Patiala and Lucknow, alternatively, besides sending teams abroad for sparring as well competing in tournaments,” said Choudhary. “But before that we have the World championships in Tokyo this April end,” he added.