Lankans to test their prowess against Indians

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

Sri Lanka Table Tennis Association's President's team will test their prowess against the formidable Tamil Nadu State TT Team who arrived in Sri Lanka for two matches to be played in Colombo and Kandy today and tomorrow. An invitation under-12 girls contest also will be worked off in both Colombo and Kandy, parallel to the main event.

Six local mens table tennis players and four womens players have been selected for the first match which will work off today at the S. Thomas' Indoor Stadium, Mt Lavinia from 09.00am to 01.00pm. The Sri Lankan under-12 team will include four players for the first match.

The second match will be played at the Jagath Rajapaksha International Indoor Stadium, Peradeniya, Kandy from10.00am to 02.00pm. Mens and womens teams consist of four players each will battle it out along with four under-12 girls paddlers in Kandy.

The second match is very important to the local players because for some of them, it will be a good warm up for the forth coming 20th Asian TT Championships which will be held from February 23 to March 1 in Macau. (Mens: Rohan Sirisena/ B.N.B. Jayasinghe/Dinesh Deshappriya, Womens: Ishara Madurangi/Erandi Warusawithana/Umaya Tharakie).

The following players have been selected by the Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka.

First set of matches: (Today) (Mens team): Indika Prasad / K.S.T. Chalitha / Sajith Kavinda / Buddhika Walagampala / Udaya Ranasinghe / Sukitha Wickramanayaka. (Womens team) Ruvini Kannangara / Kavindi Sahabandu/ Srimali Wimalarathne/ Shanika Silva (Under-12 team) Hansani Piumila/ V.O. Manawadu/ Piyumi Dewdini/ S.H.S. Imasha De Silva

Second set of matches: (Tomorrow) (Mens team / National level) Rohan Sirisena / B.N.B. Jayasinghe / Dinesh Deshappriya /G.P.H. Sajith Priyadharshana (Womens team / National level) Ishara Madurangi / Erandi Warusavithana / UmayaTharaki / Chandima Madushani (Under-12 team) Roshini Dahanaka/ Loshini Jayawardane/ Thanushi Rodrigo/ Ochini Dissanayake

Tamil Nadu State table tennis team: (Mens) E. Prabhakaran, Sushmit Sriram, L. Sathishwaran. (Womens) N.Vidya, K.K. Narmadha. (Under-12) Selena Deepthi. (Manager cum chief coach) J.Selvakumar. (Coach) N.Arulselvi