TTFI plans non-compulsory camp in June for paddlers

Kolkata, May 28 (IANS) The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) is planning to hold a camp for its national players between June 20-30 and will seek consent from the government and sports ministry for the same, its secretary general, MP Singh said on Thursday.

Singh added that while TTFI will approach players for their consent, it will be completely on them whether they would like to attend or not given the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are planning a camp and we will ask for permission from government and sports ministry. But firstly, we will send letters to players asking for their consent. If players are not comfortable, we are completely fine with that and we understand,” Singh told IANS on Thursday.

There will be separate camps for men and women in order to follow social distancing norms more effectively, Singh said.

It was initially planned that among four SAI centres — Kolkata, Sonipat, Delhi and Patiala — one would be picked for the camp but with Kolkata ravaged with cyclone Amphan, it has been ruled out, Singh said. It could be in (NIS) Patiala now.

As for the paddlers, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran has said he is not willing to travel out of his home town in Chennai just yet and it would not be practical too given the restrictions in place.

“No, I would not like to travel anytime soon. And also it’s practically not possible. There are no full fledged flights (very less), a lot are being being cancelled. There are lot of issues to be looked into,” Sathiyan told IANS.

“It’s better SDAT (Sports Development of Tamil Nadu) permits me to train in Chennai as of now and probably will think of national camp after couple of months when everything becomes normal to some extent,” added the 27-year old ace paddler, who is preparing for Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Before the start of the fourth phase of lockdown which is slated to end on May 31, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had said that sports activities will be conducted in sports complexes and stadia.

–IANS

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