Vivek Kohli, the newly elected chairman of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation, outlined his plans to expand the activities of the CTTF soon after taking office.
Speaking to the press on Sunday after defeating former president Alan Ransome at last night’s election, Kholi said the CTTF should look at the organization of the Commonwealth Youth Table Tennis Championships, along with the Veterans and Cadet Championships, as well as substance activities at national level on various continents.
“These are the plans that I have in mind and am going to present it before the board for its support and ratification,” said Kohli, who replaced Ransom after the latter had been at the helm for 26 years.
The idea of bringing both Veterans and Cadets simultaneously in a tournament, he said, 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 players and would allow more players from the Commonwealth participating in them,” said the chairman.
Kohli also said that the islands of St. Vincent and Grenada, together with Rwanda, wished to enter the CTTF while Fiji, a former member, expressed interest in joining 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)
