SAI backs Indian team for World Table Tennis Championships
The Sports Authority of India has provided over Rs 90 lakh support to the Indian table tennis team for the World Team Championships in London. A 19-member squad will compete, aiming to improve on their Round of 32 finish in 2024
Hyderabad: The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has put in place comprehensive support worth over Rs 90 lakh to ensure the Indian table tennis team puts its best foot forward at the milestone centenary ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships (WTTC), which gets underway in London on Tuesday. The event is scheduled from April 28 to May 10 at the OVO Arena in Wembley.
A 19-member Indian contingent, comprising 10 players, three coaches, three support staff and three sparring partners, is representing the country at the prestigious global event, with leading names such as Manika Batra, Gnanasekaran Sathiyan, Manav Thakkar and Harmeet Desai spearheading the challenge across men’s and women’s competitions.
The Indian men’s team is drawn alongside Slovakia, Tunisia and Guatemala, while the women’s team will take on Ukraine, Uganda and Rwanda in the group stages. The group stage matches are scheduled between April 28 and May 1. The Indian teams will be looking to go further this time around. Both the men’s and women’s teams advanced to the knockout stages but exited in the Round of 32 in the 2024 edition of the competition in Busan.
Table tennis will not feature in the Commonwealth Games 2026, but the WTTC London will provide a good test ahead of the Asian Games 2026 in Japan, and also help assess India’s preparation and bench strength as the sport is set to return at the Commonwealth Games 2030 in Bharat.
In the lead-up to the 2026 World Team Table Tennis Championships, the Sports Authority of India sanctioned a series of preparatory camps to fine-tune the team’s performance. A national coaching camp was held at the NSSC Bengaluru from April 13 to 19 at a cost of Rs 13.26 lakh, followed by an overseas training stint in Sheffield from April 21 to 26, backed with Rs 20.92 lakh. This phased preparation, combining domestic conditioning with international exposure, was aimed at improving match readiness and adapting Massimo Costantini’s players to European playing conditions.
SAI also released a total fund of approximately Rs 60.1 lakh to the Table Tennis Federation of India to ensure the team’s participation, including airfare, boarding and lodging, out-of-pocket allowances and entry fees for the athletes and officials.
The squad: Men’s team: Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Payas Jain.
Women’s team: Manika Batra, Yashaswini Ghorpade, Diya Chitale, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Syndrela Das.
Coaches: Massimo Costantini (Foreign Expert), Sourav Chakraborty, Somnath Ghosh.
