MSTTA concentrating on taluka, dist places to popularise TT

The Covid pandemic affected every game including table tennis. Due to long gap, a number of players are detached from the game. With a view to bring the game back on track, the Maharashtra State Table Tennis Association (MSTTA) has geared up and taken certain steps.

As a part of their campaign to spread the game, secretary general of MSTTA Yatin Tipnis, secretary Adv Ashutosh Potnis and executive committee member of Yavatmal Raut visited Vidarbha's 11 districts for the first time and interacted with district association officials.

After four-day tour Adv. Potnis told Lokmat Times, “The idea behind this tour was to know what kind of problems the district associations are facing. We found that out of 11 districts, ten are active. They have good players and infrastructure also. The district sports complexes have new tables and enough space to run their routine activities. In Nagpur, we have four tables at Divisional Sports Complex while requirement is of eight. At Balharshah there are three CBSE schools having infrastructure for table tennis. All in all the response was encouraging. At the same time, I think the secretaries of the district associations should become more active,” he said.

To train the coaches at district-level, MSTTA has decided to conduct a five to six day camp for them. “We have decided to impart basic training to coaches on how to train new players. Two coaches from each district of Maharashtra will be selected for the programme that may take place at Mumbai, Thane or Pune,” Potnis said.

MSTTA has been organising tournaments at the divisional-level for last few years in which teams from big cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Thane don't participate. “The idea is that teams from other cities should get a chance to compete at high level. We have started allotting the tournaments at small places also,” he added.

Tehsil team to play

directly at State-level

Along with organising the regular tournaments, MSTTA is launching a new scheme in which one team from taluka-level will directly compete in state championship with experienced players from Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur. “At taluka-level like Ramtek, Saoner, Ballarshah there are some talented players but they hardly get any opportunity to compete at high level. Thats why we have taken this decision.”