UP TT Association to conduct international TT events to promote game

KANPUR: The newly-elected president of UP Table Tennis Association Sanjeev Pathak on Saturday announced that his association would conduct international TT events to promote the game. Under the events, a test series of 8 matches will be organized between India and England most probably March next year.
Addressing mediapersons, Sanjeev and Vivek Kohli, chairman, Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation said that three out of the 8 tests would be played in England and the remaining 5 in India. Seven Indian venues have been shortlisted and Kanpur which is one of them has been finalized as the city which has good infrastructure for paddlers game, they said. Pathak, who is a former international TT player, said that a meeting of UPTTA had been held in Lucknow on November 10 where a new executive body was elected. Nirmoy Mit
“My main focus will be on school TT because schools are the main source of talented players. In the past, Kanpur had limitations but now the city has two international standard infrastructure where matches of international level can be conducted--one is Palika Multipurpose Stadium, raised under the Kanpur Smart City programme and the other is indoor hall of the Green Park stadium. It is hoped that both will be e ready by the next month”, Pathak said.
Expressing his gratitude to Vivek Kohli, chairman, Commonwealth TT Federation, he said Kohli had supported him and assured to arrange a test series between India and England to promote the game in UP. “I have experienced problems which a player faces because I have represented the district, the state and the national teams in almost all age groups”, said the newly-elected president. As a player-administrator, he would take every step to promote and upgrade the level of table tennis in UP. Talking about the AGM, he stated that no election was held. Baton was passed to the players to take care of the game and invest their energy to promote TT in the state, Pathak further said. Several present and former TT players of the city and the office-bearers of Kanpur TT Association, including Geeta Tandon Kapoor, Sanjay Tandon, Ashish Kapoor, Sunil Singh, Ashutosh Satyam etc greeted and garlanded the new president. The newly-elected state body is as under:
President-Sanjeev Pathak (Kanpur), senior vice-president-Alok Sinha (GB Nagar), vice- presidents-Kumeer Vineet (Sultanpur), SK Dey (Lkw), Rakesh Kohli (Meerut), Sanjay Munshi (Ald), Yogendra Gautam (Mbd), honorary secretary-Nirmoy Mitra (Lkw), joint secretaries- Deependra Kamthan (Bareilly), Sarvesh Kumar (Aligarh), Alka Sharma (Agra) and treasurer- Pradeep Kumar Jain.