For the past few days magzmumbai has been covering news on forthcoming Mumbai TT Super League, to be hosted by MCDTTA and MSDTTA jointly. This Table Tennis Super League will be held at Khar Gymkhana on June 20 and 21 (Saturday and Sunday) and is restricted to the Mumbai players – both from the city and suburbs .The format of the league has already been decided and accordingly, it will comprise of eight teams, to be divided into two groups, of four teams each.
The press release issued by the organizers, had stated that the team owners will be meeting at Khar Gymkhana on May 17, to announce their respective logos and the coaches/managers. Further, the auction of the players will be held on May 31, at Khar Gymkhana. So, that brought a big news for upcoming TT players and the game lovers in Mumbai.
However, now we notice that some enthusiastic sponsors, who were former national level Table tennis players, don’t seem to be happy, for the manner in which the Sponsorship of the 8 teams have been decided by the organizers. According to them, there is no transparency in allotting sponsorship to the team owners.
According to the information available with Magzmumbai, A former known player wanted to sponsor a Team, on receipt of a letter dt. 30th April 2015 from the organizers to Matunga Gym (A club which has produced a no. of International players). So, he sent an email to MSDTTA, Jt organizers of this league, asking for details, about the process of buying a Team . But, there was no reply . Later, when he called the official of MSDTTA, asking him, as to why there was no reply to the email sent ,he replied, stating that the said 8 teams, have been decided by ‘word of mouth’ , amongst few select friends and contacts. The concerned player, who is willing to sponsor one of the teams, was disappointed, not only because, the official did not recognize him; but having deprived him a chance to sponsor one of the teams.
While speaking to magzmumbai, the aggrieved player pointed out that it was not only him, but many other clubs or former TT players, would have come forward with sponsorship offers, if they had known about this proposal. The former national Jr. doubles champion said that he had also written to one reputed newspaper,( who carried the news) pointing out to them the discrepancy in selecting the sponsors; but had not received any response from them too. The player has however received good support from other TT players, on social networking site.
We at magzmumbai, have been supporting the promotion of this game from time to time, with wide coverage given to all the matches, whether big or small events. Therefore, we only hope that there is some amicable settlement to this controversy, during their meeting on 17th May 2015.