The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the phrase
aptly exemplifies the team work of PSPB, who hold a sway over the Barna Ballack
Cup for several years in a row. The firepower in their arsenal is a further
confirmation—A. Sharath Kamal, Soumyajit Ghosh, Anthony Amal Raj, Sanil Shetty
and Harmeet Desai—of the solidity which most teams can only envy about. In
fact, they have such a luxury that they can eminently rest a couple of paddlers
like Sharath or Harmeet, leaving the three others to finish off the job.
But PSPB cannot boast of such lavishness when it comes to
Jayalakshmi Cup, which their women will try to wrest. In the last two years,
beginning from the Lucknow nationals their women teams have lost the
invincibility, surrendering to Maharashtra and Delhi, in that order. This is,
indeed, a thorny issue for PSPB and they will want the team, comprising
Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahasrabudhe, K. Shmini, Neha Aggarwal and Ankita Das,
to sort out here.
Incidentally, Neha who helped Delhi
win the team title for the first time at Raipur
last year, will be turning out for PSPB and that is a big plus for the title
aspirants. However, it does put Delhi
in a vulnerable position and, in Neha’s absence they will have to make do with
a relatively weak team whose lone star performer having been Manika Batra.
West Bengal men, who finished runners-up at Raipur , will once again
have to be the bride’s maid despite having veteran Soumyadeep Roy, Sourav Saha,
Sougata Sarkar, Aanirban Ghosh and Arjun Ghosh in their ranks. They can, at
best, hope to reach the final. As for their women, they have a good bunch, led
by Mouma Das and Mousmi Pal, but there is a big if about their team with Maharashtra , Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh breathing down
their neck.
So, as for the team championships in both sections, one may
not witness real tough battles as PSPB teams are going to give their best shots
at the titles. However, one will definitely see authentic thrillers in the
singles events from the fourth day—the motivating factors being the Rs, 9.58
lakh prize money, the covered crowns and valuable ranking points.
But before that the technical committee will have to address
some tricky issues about the players’ seeding and it will be interesting to
know whether Achanta Sharath Kamal, the top-ranked Indian in the world at 50,
can still manage a top slot. Incidentally, the senior nationals are the first
event for Sharath this season and he begins it with a zero ranking point while
his rivals, who competed in Inter-Institutional and zonal championships this
year, are way ahead in national rankings.
Teams here have been divided into eight groups of four or
five teams with the second stage, the knockout, beginning the second day,
followed by semifinals and finals on Thursday. The day will also see
qualification matches in singles events.
CWG, ASIAD SELECTION
All these are only side topics as compared to the main focus
of the meet—who are all going to be selected for the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow (Scotland )
and Asian Games at Incheon (South
Korea ) later this year. The selection
committee members will be here, keenly watching players in action before they
go into a huddle. They will pick five each in the men and women’s category.
Similarly, the executive committee of the TTFI is slated to
meet here to arrive at some important decisions, including the quantum of
punishment (or otherwise) to be meted out to the overage players caught during
the Cadet and Sub-Junior Nationals a couple of weeks ago at Ajmer
Photo: KM Kishan
TTFI Press release
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