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2 July

For the past two weeks leading up to this day there have been a few posts on social media from ITTF and T2 declaring a groundbreaking announcement which would "Shape the future of Table Tennis."

An agreement between the ITTF and Sportsmaster (a new company founded by Frank Ji, CEO of Seamaster) took place in Singapore this morning. The aim of this agreement is to set in place an integrated commercial program with the ITTF World Tour, TTX, T2 APAC League, and the new Veteran's Tour all under one umbrella, beginning in 2021 with the next commercial cycle. We will see plenty of changes before 2021 though.

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This move will give the ITTF more control to set the direction of the sport and make quicker decisions, as opposed to other sports where multiple organisations have a measure of control over proceedings and can cause stalemates and delays in progress.

I was fortunate enough to be present for the press conference and gain first-hand insight into these developments. ITTF CEO Steve Dainton mentioned there will be an influx of Challenge Series events on the calendar in 2019 and beyond. In conjunction with the World Tour we will be able to see T2 APAC holding "Diamond Tier Events" where new initiatives will be tested. While it will be great to see T2 in the limelight again this also means season 2 of T2 APAC League will not be held this year and we will not see our favourite players competing at The Cavern in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. which is a pity.

ITTF article covering the news here.

There is plenty of food for thought and I welcome any questions. Looking forward to the friendly discussion below.

Watch this video below explaining the new structure:


-ttGuru
 
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Thanks for clearing up the message. Its quite confusing right now. I wonder how T2 players will feel about this. Will ITTF use t2 rules in these events? We may see a lot more new rules come into mainstream table tennis..
 
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Thanks for clearing up the message. Its quite confusing right now. I wonder how T2 players will feel about this. Will ITTF use t2 rules in these events? We may see a lot more new rules come into mainstream table tennis..

I imagine the T2 Diamond events will use the same rules we saw at the T2 APAC League. It's unclear yet whether there will be further innovations beyond these or if those rules will come into the World Tour and WTTC structure. The panel answered a question on this topic at the press conference, saying they are open to changes which benefit the sport and will look deeply at the response and effect of tests in the T2 events. There is also an Athletes Commission in place to give feedback from professional players, which the ITTF takes on board when making decisions.
 
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This move will give the ITTF more control to set the direction of the sport and make quicker decisions, as opposed to other sports where multiple organisations have a measure of control over proceedings and can cause stalemates and delays in progress.

So more power to ittf, less to the individual federations... Not sure if I like this.
 
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This may not be a bad move for everyone. More money in the kitty to work with to pull off incredible events. Table Tennis needs amazing events, look how well the Ultimate Table Tennis league has took off in India. Its a show, an event, this is what table tennis needs globally.
 
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