Few days ago, we had carried a news about selection of two promising Junior Table Tennis players from Mumbai and Thane respectively, for the South Asian Cadets & Juniors Table Tennis Championship, to be held in Karachi, Pakistan. But, their joy was short lived, as the entire Indian Juniors team along with officials were denied Visa at the last minute by Pakistan authorities.
The tournament began on Friday 15th July 2016 and the Indian Juniors team was kept waiting till Thursday, when finally they received a message about denial of Visa to these juniors and officials. The exact reason for denial of Visa is not known so far, though some say that it could be for security reasons. Interestingly, Pakistani Juniors team were issued Visa last year, when they had come to Delhi to participate in the same tournament.
Mr. Dhanraj Choudhary, Secretary of Table Tennis Federation of India, is very disappointed with this decision from Pakistan, as this tournament was a qualifying event for the forthcoming Asian Junior & Cadet Championship to be held in Bangkok in September 2016. He has therefore written to Asian Table tennis Federation, asking them to give India a direct entry into Asian Juniors championship, based on their past performance. Eight times national TT champion Kamlesh Mehta also feels that such things could affect the morale of the Indian Juniors selected for this tournament .