‘Blow for Pakistan table tennis’

Cancelled event would cost the players, says coach.

KARACHI:

Coach Arif Khan expected the Pakistan under-18 team to qualify for the Asian Junior Table Tennis Championship if the preliminary rounds in Sri Lanka had not been cancelled due to lack of sponsorships.

According to Khan, the seven-member team had shown progress in the recently-held Youth Table Tennis Championship in Dhaka where Salman Gul reached the quarter-finals of the boys’ singles event. The tournament featured 82 players from China, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, Maldives, Bhutan besides the hosts.

“Pakistan are better than Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh at the moment,” Khan told The Express Tribune. “We would have defeated them in the qualifying rounds but now India and Sri Lanka will go on to participate in the Asian Championship. I was told that the Sri Lanka federation cancelled the event due to lack of sponsors.

“It’s unfortunate because we had been preparing for it. Pakistan table tennis is progressing slowly and the under-18 team has shown a lot of potential.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2011.