Ransome: Commonwealth championships still going strong

The 69-year-old rejected the charge that the Commonwealth championship underway here is losing its sheen after Australia, Malaysia, Canada and Nigeria withdrew.

Alan Ransome wants to get smaller South Pacific countries to participate in the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship.

If Alan Ransome, the Chairman of Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation, is to be believed, the next edition of the Commonwealth championships scheduled in 2017 might follow its own system of rankings, overlooking the usual International (ITTF) rankings.

“It will be better, deeper and more comprehensive,” Ransome, told Sportstar in a chat here on Tuesday. “We will discus this in our next meeting in Kuala Lumpur during the World championships in February next year.”

The 69-year-old rejected the charge that the Commonwealth championship underway here is losing its sheen after Australia, Malaysia, Canada and Nigeria withdrew. “I don't think so. I think it has to do with the dates. At this point in time, a National championship was happening in Malaysia and Canadian players had an Olympic qualification tournament. While Australia didn’t give any reasons Nigeria had domestic issues to handle,” revealed Ransome.

The Englishman, however, stressed that with the best of countries such as Singapore, England, India and Scotland (it is quite strong this time) taking part, there should be no cause for concern. Ransome also said one of his goals is to rope in smaller nations from the South Pacific into the Commonwealth championships.