OdishaPlus Bureau
Within two months of cyclone Fani causing damage to sports infrastructure in the Twin City, the Odisha government put in all efforts to renovate stadiums and is now prepared to host international events. Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack which was also affected in the cyclone is ready to host the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships from July 17 to 22.
The state government and Odisha State Table Tennis Association will be jointly hosting the championships. The venue has gone through a complete make-over in record time to host the international event after the success of FIH Series Finals at Bhubaneswar in June. In the run-up to the event, the state government had launched a publicity campaign on July 1 at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to promote it on different forums and countries.
Teams from Australia, Bangladesh, Cyprus, England, Ghana, Guyana, Malaysia, Nigeria, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Wales will be participating. The first set of teams that arrive on July 15, include England, Singapore and hosts India while the others will follow a day later. Uganda and Jersey, who had entered the championships, pulled out at the last minute citing failure to get clearance of their respective governments, while a final word on Pakistan is yet to be heard as they are awaiting Visa.
Though the event was first staged in Singapore in 1971, India will host it for the seventh time. The 21st edition at Cuttack would mark the 50th anniversary of the championships, the seeds of which were sown at a meeting held in Munich at 1969 World Championships.
