[size=+1]No fear, Zeio. Mr.Stive Dainton runs the whole show, not a Chinese whosoever he/she may be.[/size]
Good choice. Dainton is arguably the 1st Asianized ITTF official. I love how he conducts interviews with Chinese media
entirely in Putonghua. He even resides in Singapore now. In the extended one he did at the last Women's World Cup, he couldn't stress enough about working together with China in the future.
http://video.zhibo.tv/video/details/7bd2d187-f4a9-11e9-8854-525400ccac43.html
@2:24
After I became the CEO of the ITTF
what's changed?
The change is perhaps in thought
- Thought?
Say, in the past, the younger officials like us felt the ITTF was perhaps too political
Many political stuff
and many...say...
equipment, techniques, the minor stuff
But once I took helm, I felt we had to work on marketization
And so we did
perhaps the 1st time the ITTF did the first strategic plan
@3:46
- More focus on marketization?
You said it's a pleasure to work with the CTTA
From what we gather, the ITTF and the CTTA will have more in-depth collaborations
Could you share with us some of the plans that are in the talks?
Relatively simple
LGL has become the president
not even 1 year
His age is closer to mine
His thought is closer to ours
He has to make the sport of table tennis
its future
much better
including competitions, the world, and many others
Because the thoughts are close
we have a great discussion every time we meet
And there's no politics
He doesn't talk about how the ITTF used to do this
We don't talk about how the CTTA used to do this
We talk about the future
That's a big change
and we have a good time
The Tokyo Olympics is fast approaching
He wants good results for sure
But he also thinks...about table tennis
the future of the table tennis market
That's in line with how we think
Then we thought if we work together
the future of table tennis will be bright
International and China, China is the strongest market
The majority of market comes from China
China, Asia
And the ITTF also has the international market
So if these 2 work together
this will definitely be good for the future of table tennis
@7:23
Grand slam level
You want to build a new, higher, and more professional tournament with the CTTA
We're talking right now...many details to work out
but the main thing is how we will work together for the future of the table tennis market
We're having a great discussion
The executive committee had a meeting today
We talked about how to work with the CTTA
Discussion went very well. The executive committee knows we have to work with China
Unlike before, we're here, and CTTA is here
If we can work together
from playing in competitions to vitalizing the market
That'd definitely be a good thing
As you mentioned, our thoughts are in line