It's now time for table tennis league: Indians to move along best in the world

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Chennai, July 12: Top Indian paddlers will rub shoulders with the best in business as Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT), country's first ever professional league, kicks off here on Thursday (July 13).

Table tennis has become the latest sport in India to jump on the Pro league bandwagon after badminton, football, hockey, wrestling and kabaddi, aiming to raise profile of the sport.

Unlike other city-based leagues, UTT will have six franchise-based clubs fighting it out for top honours. What is expected to give the venture a big fillip is that all matches will be broadcast live with film star Amir Khan being the league's biggest ambassador.

While the top Chinese players have given the project a miss, one can still expect some high-quality table tennis from the likes of men's world number 8 Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong and women's number nine Han Ying of Germany, who are headlining the field.

The first match of the opening leg here will see RP-SG Mavericks, featuring Indian ace Sharath Kamal, Stefan Fegerl and Sabine Winter, take on Falcons TTC comprising Wu Yang, Lee Ho Chong, Par Gerell and Sanil Shetty.

The other franchises in the fray are Shaze Challengers, Dabang Smashers TTC, Maharashtra United and Oilmax-Stag Yodhas. Eight matches would be played in Chennai from July 13 to 20 before the league moves to Delhi (July 21 to 25). The final leg would be held from July 26 in Mumbai.

India number one Sharath said he was excited to play in his own backyard, years after playing leagues in Europe. "I think personally as far as Indian players are concerned, it's a very good platform where we play foreign players and we'll also play one of the mixed doubles, so we'll have enough matches where the Indians are also playing against the foreign players," said the world number 43.

PTI