Roadmap for Gujarat Super League ready, ball set to roll on in New Year

GANDHIDHAM, Nov. 13 The Gujarat State Table Tennis Association (GSTTA) officials are burning the midnight oil to give a final shape to the much-anticipated and its own Gujarat Super League (GSL).

The 15-lakh prize money League is scheduled to kick start around the last week of January or early February 2020. The League matches will be spread over six days and will be held either at Surat or Ahmedabad.

The League shall have six city-based teams or franchises across the state. Out of six, four franchises have already been taken on board with each of them allowed to have four players, two coaches and a manager, to form its team.

Among the four players permitted, two will be male and an equal number of female paddlers. Each franchisee is allowed the luxury of two national-level paddlers–one male and one female–drawn from any state, while two others in a similar proportion will be from Gujarat.

The players will be selected through auction, scheduled next month. A pool of 10-12 players in each category have been drafted in categories such as Gujarat Male, Gujarat Female, National Male and National Female, to provide the franchise owners a fair chance to pick and choose through auction.

Though Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and Manush Shah, the top-ranked paddlers, turning out for national duty regularly, they will be only considered as Gujarat players and won’t form part of the National players’ basket.

With 2020 Olympic qualification events beginning early next year and depending on the availability of these international players from Gujarat, the final dates of the League will be decided.
Meanwhile, GSTTA is also mulling over the opportunity to be given to ex-players like Devesh Karia, now Gujarat coach, as wildcard entries. Before the auction, each player is allowed to fix his or her own base price.