Sport - Table Tennis   

PSCB, Railways to fight it out

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 6. Host Petroleum Sports Control Board (PSCB) will be keen to settle a few scores with Railways when the 32nd all-India inter-institutional table tennis championship gets underway at the NDMC indoor stadium here on Wednesday.

After dominating the team championships besides monopolising the singles titles for nearly a decade, the men from PSCB found the going tough for their liking in the past two encounters against Railways. In fact, in the previous edition of the championship, Petroleum had lost both team finals to Railways.

Even without the services of Chetan Baboor, who is busy studying and playing in France, PSCB boasts of the strongest combination — at least on paper. Still, last year in Kolkata and again this year in the National championship held here, the younger and far more motivated boys from Railways had left the `men' from PSCB thoroughly embarrassed.

Though there are 16 teams, divided into four groups, in the men's section and five in the women's, it is futile to look beyond PSCB and Railways. It has become a two-horse race only because former champion Banks' Sports Board and Indian Airlines no longer have good players.

With the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) preventing the players on stipend from representing their employers or sectors in these championships, BSB and Airlines have stopped encouraging young talent.

On the composition of the two front-runners, if PSCB has the services of National champion Soumyadeep Roy, Subhajit Saha, S. Raman, Sibaji Dutta and Arup Basak, Railways looks to Sourav Chakraborty, Ranbir Das besides the more experienced Sharad Kamal and Bhushan Thakur. Anirban Nandy makes up the number.

For PSCB to be on fire, it is important for Soumyadeep to provide the much-needed spark. It was his failure in the team championship final in the Nationals that cost PSCB dearly. Though he went on to win the individual title, Soumyadeep remains a marked man as far as the team's think-tank is concerned. Therefore, with all the PSCB big-wigs watching, Soumyadeep will have to play out of his skin to win the team matches. From Railways' point of view, Sourav will again be expected to reproduce the form that saw him pull off two matches in the National team final. This south-paw has been the most exciting prospect to emerge from the bunch of otherwise mediocre performers. Though Sharad Kamal is the Railway champion, Ranbir Das will also be expected to play an important role.

Realistically, Railways is pinning more hopes of retaining the women's team title. With the National Games runner-up Vishakha Bijoy joining the experienced Anindita Chakraborty, Susmita Ray, Mousami Paul and Mamta Prabhu, Railways seems more optimistic.

Missing from the line-up will be the Railway champion Nandita Saha who has joined PSCB. Although Nandita figures in the Petroleum line-up which includes Poulomi Ghatak, Mouma Das, N. R. Indu and Mantu Ghosh, she may be replaced by M. S. Mythili. This was being done to prevent any last-minute objection from any quarter. Since Nandita is yet to complete three months with her new employers, she is ineligible to represent PSCB in this edition, as per the TTFI rules.

Even otherwise, Petroleum is not going to miss Nandita. All its team members, except Indu, have won the National title. Still Petroleum needs no reminding the fact that Railways loves to make a mockery of reputations.

After the team finals on Friday, the focus will shift to the individual events. Again, it will be difficult to predict the singles winners. For many years, Baboor remained the clear favourite and he justified it, too. However, last year, Baboor was upstaged by Soumyadeep in the final. But Baboor's absence this year has left the field open for the rest. In the women's section, too, the scenario continues to be as unpredictable. One can expect a plethora of upsets.

On offer will be Rs. 1.21 lakhs for the individual events, including doubles, apart from Rs. 36,000 for the finalists of the team championships.

The groups: Men: Group A: Railways, Food Corporation of India, Indian Bank and Oriental Insurance Limited; Group B: PSCB, All India Electricity Board, Defence Accounts and Coal India; Group C: Banks' Sports Board, Central Revenue, State Bank of Indore and Ordinance Factory; Group D: LIC, Major Ports, RBI and Indian Airlines.

Women (league): Railways, PSCB, Defence Accounts, LIC and Central Revenue.

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