The seeding of each team was based on the individual
rankings of their three best players who are participating here. With only 12
teams taking part in the men’s event, the squads were divided into four groups
and the nine women’s sides in three groups.
Singapore’s men have been drawn in group A, clubbed with Sri
Lanka and New Zealand while India takes the top position in group B along with
Trinand & Tobago and Jersey. England, who are seeded No. 3 here, form part
of Group C with Northern Ireland and Wales and Group D comprises No. 4 seeded
Scotland, Cyprus and South Africa.
As for women’s draw, again Singapore
in Group A have for company South Africa
and Cyprus and India in Group B have Sri
Lanka and Northern
Ireland . England ,
Wales
and South have been clubbed into Group C.
The format of play, according to Commonwealth regulations,
two teams from each group in men’s section will qualify for the second stage
and the winners of these groups will be divided into further two groups of E
and D to play another set of league matches. The teams that take the top perch
in each of these E and D groups will clash for the gold medal. The rest of the
teams will play positional matches with the third and fourth finish squads
getting the bronze medals.
However, there is a small twist has been provided in women’s
draw. Like the men, the women, too, play the first stage group matches with top
two teams qualifying for the second stage with another set of leagues matches
among the six teams divided into two groups of D and E. The two teams emerging
on top from these groups will play on a cross knock-out basis.
Interestingly, the teams’ draw makes the prediction loud and
clear as who could emerge the gold winners in the two categories. If Singapore ’s
burden is on the shoulders of Li Hu, who is ranked 59 in the world, the
responsibility of winning the women’s team championships will be on Zhou Yihan
(46), the only player figuring in the top-50 of the world here. Of course, she
has world No. 57 in Lin Ye whose support Zhou can expect if and when there is a
need.
On the other hand, India
will rely mostly on the experience of Soumyajit Ghosh (world No. 95) and expect
Anthony Amalraj, G. Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai and Devesh Karia, the last two
named from Gujarat , to pitch in whenever
called to do duty.
With the format allowing only three players to be named in
the squad, it all depends on the cleverness of the coaches to get their
combinations right.
The first lot of matches begins tomorrow at 10
a.m. with the women’s team event and followed by men’s matches.
With no matches scheduled for the day, a glittering opening
ceremony was the major attraction of all teams and spectators alike with
Bhupendra Sinh Chudasama as the chief guest. The minister along with several
other dignitaries from the Government of Gujarat, SAG, SMC and officials from
the CTTF, TTFI and GSTTA, who were part of the gala opening, enjoyed the teams’
march-past and wonderful cultural programmes that followed with display of
various dance forms by children drawn from Surat’s different schools.
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