No cricket: India-England Test series in table tennis likely this year

The Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation (CTTF) is mulling a marquee Test series between fierce rivals India and England this year as part of its efforts to promote the racquet sport in member countries.

The CTTF, headed by chairman Vivek Kohli, was unable to organize events in the last three years due to COVID-19 and the busy season of 2022 when the Commonwealth Games were held in Birmingham.

Speaking to PTI, Kohli said the CTTF has spoken to the Indian and English federations about a bilateral series, usually associated with cricket, in April-May or October. Apart from the Test series, the CTTF plans to organize four events, including the Commonwealth Championships, which were last held in Cuttack in 2019.

”We want to bring the Test series concept to table tennis, as is happening in cricket, under the Commonwealth umbrella. We have discussed with Table Tennis England about a Test series with five venues in India or three venues in England. In England, we have chosen Manchester, Birmingham and London,” said Kohli. ”We work in India, Kanpur, Kolkata and three other cities. We plan to have it this year and later we will add more countries to the Test series including Pakistan, Singapore and South Africa.

”This is how we want to promote the game in the Commonwealth.” G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai have also contributed to this competition over the years.

– There are really good players in both countries. India and England always have good matches in CWG irrespective of the result. Our goal as a Commonwealth body is to get an Olympic medal from the region. Not just India, we have 72 members in the region,” Kohli said.

India will host its first WTT event in Goa next month. Kohli said he wants the Commonwealth events to run alongside the professional tour to cut costs. “We are also talking to the ITTF about having the WTT events and the Commonwealth events at the same venue so that it would be easier to organize them,” he added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and was automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)