KARACHI: The First KTTA Inter-Firm and Ranking Table Tennis tournament will be held here at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) Benazir Sports Complex from July 22 to 28.

During a press briefing here at the KPT Sports Complex on Saturday, the honourary secretary of Karachi Table Tennis Association (KTTA) Shaukat Omari said that the step has been taken to bring the corporate sector together with the purpose so that these financial institutions could support the association in its endeavour to boost the standard of table tennis in the city.

He informed that in the week-long event a record 32 teams will participate. Teams from Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Hinopak Motors, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Allied Engineering and Services, Sonafi Aventis Pakistan Limited, Johnson and Johnson, Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), National Refinery Limited (NRL), Mobilink, State Bank of Pakistan, State Life Insurance Corporation, New Jubilee Insurance (NJI), ICI Pakistan, Candyland, Emirates Global Islamic Bank, Pakistan Refinery Limited, Merck, British Council, Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Glaxo Smithkline (GSK), Popular Industries, Citibank and Asian Petroleum will show their worth in the tournament, he said.

Plans are also in the pipeline to organise at least four such type of tournaments in the year 2008-09, Shaukat said. The chairman of KTTA Dr Farhan Essa disclosed that along with inter-firm team events and men’s singles, two KTTA ranking events including the men’s singles and women singles ranking have also been included in the competition.

He said that women have also been invited and it is hoped that next year the firms will also form their women teams as well to compete in such tournaments. He said that the last date for entries has been kept as July 21. Essa said that KTTA also plans to conduct Under-15 and Under-18 junior table tennis event from July 24 to 26 for which also July 21 has been kept as the closing date for entries confirmation.

He said that the Inter-firm tournament will be formally opened by the honourary chairperson of KPT Mrs Nasreen Haque on July 22 at 6:30pm. The draws will be held on July 21 at 7:00pm, he added.

The President of Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF) S M Sibtain said that Karachi is considered as the nursery of table tennis and most of the national players who have claimed or have been claiming medals at international level belong to Karachi.

He said ithout the support of the corporate sector it was impossible to promote table tennis in the country, saying the inter-firm tourney will help bring the local and multinational companies at a single platform to realise the factor that table tennis needs their backing.