It's the age of leagues in the Indian sports scene, with a plethora of outdoor games already having made their foray into the league bandwagon.
Be it cricket, football, hockey, tennis, kabaddi, or even the upcoming wrestling league, the sports fans in the country have plenty of reasons to be delighted.
And with an indoor game like table tennis entering the list now, things can only get better.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) have announced that they are planning an Indian Table Tennis League, and the tournament is set to take off on 28 May, 2016, and will continue until 12 June. Eight franchisee sides will be competing for the prize money of Rs 1 crore.
The eight teams will constitute of a foreign male and female player each, besides an Indian in both the gender categories.
And according to the TFFI, this franchisee league will get a dedicated window by world table tennis body International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
Soumyajit Ghosh, who is the current national champion in table tennis, said that the lucrative league can work wonders for the indoor game in India.
"We will get to play against the best in our own country. Most of the top Indian players train overseas right now. But with the arrival of the league, we will get to spend a lot of time with some of the best players in the world," Ghosh told media persons, during the event's launch, on Thursday.
"We will get valuable glimpses into how they train and how they prepare. It will also help Indian players to prepare ahead of international tournaments," he added.
The TTFI have roped in sports firm 11EVEN Sports and a 10-year agreement has been signed between the parties to promote the franchisee event, and in the process, spread the game of ping pong in India.
"Now that we have got the ITTF nod, we are confident the best players of the world will be a part of this league, which will turn out to be a great learning experience for the Indian players," 11EVEN Sports director and former TT player Kamlesh Mehta told PTI.
"We have already had meetings with the Chinese officials and they seem very open to providing their players. Though the event is in the Olympic year, it is two months before the Rio Games begin. We will get the world's best players to India," the former Arjuna awardee added.
