Eight-time national men’s champion and triple Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sharath Kamal on Wednesday was picked up by Yoddhas in the player draft of the Ultimate Table Tennis league on Wednesday. The tournament will begin on June 14 in Pune. Dabang Smashers pulled off another coup, singing up top-ranked Indian woman’s singles player, Manika Batra. They had earlier retained world no 49 and India’s top-ranked men’s player G Sathiyan.
The Yoddhas picked their male and female foreign players before snapping up Kamal in the third draft, who was playing for RG-SG Mavericks last season. The teams had the option of retaining one Indian player before the draft pick. While smashers retained Sathiyan, reigning champions Falcons retained Sanil Shetty.
Overall, 50 players were in the fray for the franchises to pick their eight-member squads. Vita Dani, promoter of the league and chairperson of 11sports, said. “Almost 50 per cent who took part in the inaugural season are back for the second season,” she said. “This season will feature 25 Olympians, players of 19 different nationalities, 19 national champions and 17 No 1 ranked players of their respective countries. It’s a compact format (of 7 matches instead of 9 in the inaugural season) which will make it more exciting,” she added.
Foreign women players were in demand. World no 18 Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei and Sofia Polcanova of Austria, the women’s world no 21 were also picked by Yoddhas. The six franchises had to pick four foreign and as many Indians each from six different categories. The highest ranked foreign players Frenchman Simon Gauzy (World No 8) and Hong Kong’s Doo Hoi Kem (World No 11) were picked by Challengers and RP-SG Mavericks, respectively.
The youngest Olympian in the fray, 17-year-old Adriana Diaz of Puerto Rico, went to Dabang Smashers. The first leg of the league will be held at Pune before moving to Delhi. The final leg of the tournament will be played in Kolkata.
Teams
