African table tennis goes global and the World Cup returns

Steve Dainton, group chief executive of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), said the long-awaited return of the World Cup to the African continent is part of efforts to make table tennis global.

“It’s very important,” Dainton said on Saturday as the finals of the 2023 ITTF World Championships (WTTC) got underway in Durban, South Africa.

The championships were the first time the prestigious event was held in Africa since 1939.

“Table tennis is a huge sport all over the world. We want to be one of the biggest sports globally, so it’s really important that we take our biggest event, the World Table Tennis Championships, all over the world,” commented Dainton. .

“To have an event here in Africa, in South Africa, in Durban and for the first time back on this continent in 84 years is really amazing for us,” he added.

Before Durban, the 2021 Table Tennis Worlds were played in Houston, USA. Two consecutive events will be held outside of Asia and Europe, reflecting the globalization of table tennis.

“We made a lot of changes in table tennis in the last few years when World Table Tennis (WTT) started Grand Smashes. We see an opportunity to really take the World Table Tennis Championships to different parts of the world,” said Dainton. .

“That [the Houston worlds in 2021] was the first time since the 1939 Cairo event that we were outside of Asia and Europe, so it was a very important milestone. We also made some reforms for the World Cup so that we can move,” the ITTF official added.

“We hope that in 2027 we can go to maybe Latin America or Oceania because it’s really important to become a global sport.”