CTTF chairman Vivek Kohli unveils expansion plans

Cuttack, July 21 (IANS) The newly-elected chairman of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation (CTTF), Vivek Kohli, spelt out his plans to expand the CTTF activities soon after taking charge.

Addressing the media on Sunday after he defeated former Chairman Alan Ransome in the election held on Saturday, Kholi said that the CTTF should look at organising the Commonwealth Youth Table Tennis Championships and the veterans and cadet championships together, besides holding events of substance at the regional level in different continents.

"These are the plans that I have in mind and I am going to present them before the board for its support and ratification," said Kohli, who replaced Ransom after the latter had been at the helm for 26 years.

He said the idea of bringing both veterans and cadets simultaneously in a tournament would serve the purpose of both old and young players of the same family playing together.

"Besides, we can request those nations that host ITTF World Tour events to extend the programme by another two days so that the Commonwealth tournaments can be clubbed with them. It can drastically cut down the air travel costs of the players and would allow more players from the Commonwealth countries to participate in them," said the chairman.

Kohli also said that St. Vincent and Grenada Islands along with Rwanda wanted to join the CTTF while Fiji, a former member, has expressed its interest in rejoining the federation.

"Our idea is to have more and more countries in the Commonwealth participating in table tennis to make it really big, even bigger than Olympics because the participation is now limited to only 16 teams," he said.

Elected office-bearers: Vivek Kohli, Chairman (India); Susie Hughes, Vice-chairman (England); Mahinder Pal Singh, Secretary (India); Audrina C. MaCdonald (South Africa)