Panaji
The third edition of Miramar Sports Club’s annual All-India Table Tennis Invitational championship will be held at Indoor Stadium, Campal from April 24-29.
Multiple-time Gold medallist and current India number five Anukram Jain and former India sub- junior number two Shubhankar Renvavikar are the notable names who will be participating in the tournament.
The other highlights of this year’s championship are more categories and bigger prizes on offer. The championship will have prizes worth Rs 1,00,000 on offer while the total budget is 2.5 lakh.
Apart from Anukram and Shubhankar, big names like Wesley Do Rosario, Goa junior and men’s number one; Rakshit Barigdad, Karnataka youth and men number one; Akash Pal, Bengal junior number one; Diljeet Velingkar, former Goa state champion; Noel Noronha, former Goa state champion; Ajit Ghatker, former Goa state champion among others will showcase their great finesse at the championship.
The championship includes six different categories – Men’s Team, Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, U-15 Team, U-15 Singles and Ladies Singles. Matches will begin at 10 AM in the mornings( Sat & Sun) and 3:30 PM in the evenings.
Speaking on the occasion, Miramar Sports Club President, Joel Andrade said, “It brings us great delight and joy to be holding the third edition of the ‘MSC CUP’ this year with good quality of players coming and showcasing their talent. This annual tournament is an opportunity for the state to watch some of the best players in the country in action. I strongly believe that such kinds of tournaments will encourage the younger generation to take up the sport and think about it as a career. We are very pleased to introduce the men’s doubles category which isn’t organized in Goa and the women’ singles category for this year’s edition. We have a raised prize purse of 1,00,000 up for grabs this year and we can expect some some stiff competition from the best in the business.”
While the annual event has been conducted at open/invitational level till now, the future could see it taken to another level. “Everyone on the panel with me is very passionate about the sport and are driven to make this tournament one of the leading events in the country. Hopefully in a couple of years from now we can have an auction based championship”, said Joel in conclusion.
Myron Pereira, Treasurer, Miramar Sports Club, provided details of entries received. “There are around 200 entries received in all. In Mens Team championship, there are 14 teams participating and lots more in the other events. In individual Men’s singles, the Main Draw will comprise of 64 players. Verekar, Nakoda Sports Academy, Swag Smashers, BPS Sports Club, Panjim TT Club, Sangli Smashers, Harzen, Hotel Manoshanti, Bhopal, Peddem Sports Club, Gulbarga, SH, Panjim Morning Stars and Panjim TT Club Panthers are the teams which will be vying for the Team championship” said Myron.
Gaurish Dhond, Vice President of Goa TT Association, expressed his and the Association’s support to the championship. “It’s a proud occasion that Miramar Sports Club is organising this championship for the 3rd year in succession. In years to come, they have improved, they have brought players from outside. When there is healthy competition, it benefits the Goan players and the standard of the game also goes up. Otherwise we see the same faces participating in the tournaments and when new players come we know where our game lies and where we can improve. All good wishes from Goa Table Tennis Association to the young Miramar Sports Club’s organising team and we look forward to many more of such tournaments as it is an opportunity for our young boys and girls to compete against the best”, said Mr. Dhond in his address.
Noel Noronha, former Goa State Table Tennis champion, who addressed the media said: “For a player to come up, coaching and other support is required but exposure is the key to develop your game. On the other hand, if you get the best of infrastructure, facilities and coaching but no exposure, then a player is not really going to go anywhere. What I have observed from this tournament in the past is it brings this exposure to your doorstep. The timing of this tournament is good as it is held during the vacations and many outstation players love to come to Goa. Goa is a good place for a holiday so there are many participants. When we were young we never had a chance to participate in these kinds of tournaments and this is a good initiative taken by the club. Other clubs should also try to organize events like this which will give an exposure to our Goan players”.
Wesley Do Rosario spoke about his experiences during the previous editions. He said: “My experiences in the past have been wonderful as I got to play against top quality players like Vivek Bhargava and Sudanshu Grover. I am happy to play this year with Anukram Jain, India Junior number two ranked and Rakshit Barigdad, Karnataka youth and men number one. This is a great experience to me to play against different players from India.”
Sandeep Heble, Tournament advisor, who is also the Secretary of Goa Badminton Association, complimented Miramar Sports Club. The following points were also made by him during his interaction with the media.
“I congratulate Miramar Sports Club for taking this excellent initiative to promote the game at a higher level and giving our Goan paddlers an opportunity to compete against good quality outstation players. This is the third edition of this championship and there is good excitement generated year after year. Some of the Associations have started their own professional leagues, but in many others this is missing. For any game to come up, we need a good corporate structure and professionalism. A professional league is one way of raising the bar of sports in the State. What Miramar Sports Club has initiated is a good beginning. Associations must think on similar lines.”
“Associations need to have an Open Policy of embracing new members in their fold. If more number of clubs and players are brought into the association fold, then more sponsors come in, more corporates come in, there are more opportunities of various kinds, refereeing, organising, event management, etc etc. All Associations must think positively in this direction and work towards having such an open and embracing policy,” he went on.
Government is spending a lot of money on creating new infrastructure but not much thought is given to improve the standard of the game. Some of the infrastructure which has been created can be converted into academies where there will be higher level of coaching through which we can create more potential champions. At present, Goa lacks top level coaches. In Table Tennis for instance, there are two Government coaches but because they have to coach all types of children, from beginners to intermediate to advanced, they cannot focus their skills on advanced players. Hence, an academy which can cater to advanced players is very much the need of the hour for many sports. This has become quite a culture in other States but Goa has some catching up to do,” he added.
There are many sports persons who are now doing well. Anura Prabhu Desai, Yash Fadte, Anurag Mhamal, Wesley do Rosario to name a few. While the Government has earmarked substantial funds running into crores of rupees for the GFDC, there is no similar support to other sports. Instead of focussing all your funds on one sport, why not evaluate the types of sports in which Goa has the facilities to perform and excel? The Government can make a list of such priority sports and keep a proportional budget for improvement of all its top athletes rather than focussing only on Football.”
The press conference was attended by Joel Andrade, President, Miramar Sports Club; Gaurish Dhond, Vice President, Goa Table Tennis Association; Noel Noronha, former state Table Tennis champion; Wesley Do Rosario, current Goa State Table Tennis top ranked player in Junior Boys and Mens; Sandeep Heble, Tournament Advisor; Myron Pereira, Treasurer, Miramar Sports Club and Noel Estibeiro, Vice President, Miramar Sports Club.
