Nation-wide inter-schools TT on Dhyan Chand’s birthday

Mumbai, Aug 25 (PTI) A nation-wide inter-schools tabletennis team event is to be conducted on August 29, thebirthday of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand which is celebrated asthe national sports day, across 27 states. Depending on the number of entries, the event would becarried on for two more days to identify the particularstate’s schools champions, it was announced today by formernational champion Kamlesh Mehta, director of 11Even Sportswhich is organising the event under auspices of the respectivestate bodies and the Table Tennis Federation of India. The winning inter-school champion of each state wouldprogress to the national inter-state finals, set to beorganised between December 9-11 at a venue to be finalised bythe middle of next month. "In all probability Indore would play host to the event,"said Mehta who explained that while the north eastern statesof Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura will not berepresented in this unique venture, Kerala and Meghalaya wouldconduct it at a later date. "The idea is to do it every year. We will be supplyingballs, T-shirts etcetera," said three-time Olympian Mehta atthe Khar Gymkhana, venue for the event in Maharashtra. "Our aim is to provide school children the opportunity toplay table tennis at a competitive level. We also want tospread awareness of the game among school children and providea platform for young champions," said the eight-time nationalmen’s singles champion. "11Even Sports and TTFI are working towards encouragingand supporting all state associations and to make table tennisthe most played sport in schools," the 56-year-old formernational coach said. Events would be held for senior boys and girls andjunior boys and girls but restricted to those studentscurrently in the VIII, IX and X standards, according to Mehta. All the teams who qualify for the inter-state schoolsnationals would be provided with accommodation, food and localtravel for the entire duration of stage 2 of the event. PTISSR GK SSCSSCSDM