Indian TT Team For Hong Kong Pre-Olympic Tournament

Chetan Baboor, who stayed back in Malaysia after the World Championships there last week, will join the other members of the Indian team in Hong Kong.

The Indian men’s team finished 25th among the 80-odd participating nations in the recently-concluded World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, improving upon their previous standing of 33. But the women farely poorly, finishing in the 56-57 bracket.

“Our men performed as expected in both the Commonwealth Championships and the World meet, but our women were big disappointments,” said Table Tennis Federation of India general secretary Mool Chand Chowhan, who returned here from Kuala Lumpur last night.

Chetan Baboor retained his third position in men’s singles at the Commonwealth championships where Chetan and S Raman won the men’s doubles title for the second time running. In men’s team events, India slipped to third position from the second spot they had attained last time.

“Considering the poor performance of the women players, the federation is seriously considering whether to send any team in future for world championships. Unless they show improvement, there is no point in fielding our women’s team just for participation-sake,” Chowhan said here today. The TTFI general secretary welcomed the world federation’s decision taken at Kuala Lumpur to increase the size of the ball from the present 38mm to 48 mm. “It will help the visibility for the spectators and for better television coverage,” he said. The use of the new ball will come into effect in international tournaments from October this year. Team for pre-Olympic tournament:p>