Pakistan TT players to train abroad for SAG

January 21, 2009: Karachi

In order to achieve the goals in the South Asian Games(SAG), the Pakistan table tennis authorities paln to send the top ten players abroad for six months training for six months training, a top official of the Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF) told ' The News' on Monday.

The President of the PTTF SM Sibtain said that the federation intends to send the top ten players (five boys and five girls) to China in April so that they could stay there till the SAG slated to be held in December in Bangladesh.

"I have also given my proposal to the Director General of the Pakistan Sports Board(PSB) during an exclusive meeting with him the other days in Islamabad. I told him that we need at least silver medal in the coming SAG to be held in Dhaka and it would be possible through hard training in China only who boast for having the best players of the world," he said.

" The idea struck the PSB boss and he has told me that I should send the proposal in written form within few days and then it would be seen what support the PSB could provide to the PTTF in this connection," Sibtain said.

He added the plan will cost around Rs. 7.5 millions, saying he is also planning to discuss it with the Pakistan Sports Trust (PST) chief Lt. General Arif Hassan to see what he could help the federation in achieving this high objective.

" I have also shared my plans with the International Table Tennis (ITTF) chief during a meeting in Macau in December last year and also communicate with the China table tennis authorities for arranging such an important traing programme," he said.

He said though Pakistan have been participating in international competitions regularly which cost the federation a lot of money without any output, saying his idea to send the squad abroad for half a year training will at least be of some utility to the country.

It is partinent to mention here that in the last South Asian Games that were held in Colombo in August 2006 Pakistan had grabbed bronze medals in team event (both men and women), men's doubles, men's singles and women's singles.