India will be hard pressed to justify billing

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 11. Going by the draw of the 15th Commonwealth table tennis championship, India may find it difficult to justify its fourth seeding in both the sections when the action begins at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here on Saturday.

Fifth in the last edition, the Indian women's team has been clubbed with England, Canada and Ghana in Group `D'. Fifth- seeded England is expected to make things difficult in the league phase. Since two each from all the four groups will form the quarterfinal line-up, India should make the grade with victories over Canada and Ghana.

In the 17-nation men's section, too, fifth-seeded New Zealand is in the host group. Malaysia, Northern Ireland and Maldives are the other teams in Group `D'. All other groups have four teams each.

The format of the team events will be best-of-seven matches - six singles and a doubles. Since table tennis will become part of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002, this championship too will be held once in four years, with the next edition slated for 2004. But, in all probability, this will be the last championship adopting the present format.

The draw was made in the presence of the Chairman, Classification and Technical Committee of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation, Dr. Chandra Madhosingh, the Referee for the championship, Mr. A. M. Lele and the Chairman, Technical Committee of the Table Tennis Federation of India, Mr. Dhanraj Choudhary at Hotel Crowne Plaza Surya.

Indian men meet Maldives

Indian men will open their campaign against Maldives on Saturday and play the rest of the league matches on the following day. On the other hand, the Indian women take on Ghana on the opening day before facing Canada and England on Sunday. The team quarterfinals and semifinals are slated for Monday. The final is scheduled for Tuesday evening.

In group `A', holder England, spearheaded by the two- time champion and World No. 52, Mathew Syed, will be in the company of Wales, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In group `B', Singapore will be led by Duan Yong Jun. Runner-up in the last championship, Singapore will have to contend with last edition's bronze medallist Canada, which will be without its top player, Johnny Huang. It may be recalled that Duan Yong Jun had finished second best to Mathew Syed in the previous final. Mauritius and Cyprus make up the numbers in this group.

Nigeria, which did not take part in the last championship, has been seeded third, based on the aggregate points of its first three players. Segun Toriola and Nosiru Kazeem, who got the better of the Indian pair of Chetan Baboor and S. Raman in the Sydney Olympics, will be watched with interest once the open events commence on April 18.

In singles, Toriola and Kazeem have world rankings of 136 and 200, respectively. In the last championship, Baboor had beaten Toriola in the quarterfinals before going down to the eventual champion Mathew Syed in the semifinal.

In the women's section, comprising 16 teams, Singapore is expected to retain the title without much competition. Jing Jun Hong, Li Jia Wei, Zhang Xue Ling and Tan Paey Fern, enjoy world rankings of 13, 23, 52 and 86, in that order.

Second seed Malaysia's top-ranked player, Yao Lingjing, is ranked a distant 82 while the other players of the team are over the 250-mark. Last year's runner-up Australia has a far weaker line- up this time and as a result, is placed eighth on the team ranking list. New Zealand, seeded three, is likely to benefit from the presence of Li Chunli and Li Karen, ranked 42 and 111, respectively.

The groups (figure in brackets denote ranking points):

Men: Group `A': England (3527), Wales (1668), Pakistan (1331) and Sri Lanka (612).

Group `B': Singapore (3238), Canada (2224), Mauritius (1593) and Cyprus (488).

Group `C': Nigeria (3105), Scotland (1940), Australia (1579) and Ghana (nil).

Group `D': India (3061), New Zealand (2653), Malaysia (1265), Northern Ireland (344) and Maldives (nil).

Women: Group `A': Singapore (5002), Australia (1878), Sri Lanka (619) and Scotland (307).

Group `B': Malaysia (2886), Nigeria (1884), Northern Ireland (999( and Mauritius (nil).

Group `C': New Zealand (2803), Wales (1948), Pakistan (690) and Maldives (nil).

Group `D': India (2692), England (2616), Canada (1826) and Ghana (nil).

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