Submit a question: ITTF CEO Steve Dainton

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Hi Guys,

We have managed to secure an interview with the ITTF CEO, Steve Dainton.

The subject of the interview will be the "objectives and vision of World Table Tennis". We would like to offer you the chance to ask the man in charge something on the subject.

What do you want to know? Over to you...
 
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When is ITTF going to standardise the plastic material used in the plastic ball so different brands of balls behave the same?
How is the rule about hidden serves and booster use going to be uniformly enforced going forward?
Did you really thinks having multiple rubber colors going to make the sport more popular?
Who decided the new side view camera angle is the best instead of a diagonal, closer, about head height view.
Is vigorously enforcing copyright(?) against people who post self recorded full table tennis matches on youtube a good move to promote the sport?

Who wants to bet if any of these questions get answered?
 
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JTTA and some other federations seem to not to be too happy at all with the new system
many links here https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...election-System-to-be-Revamped-for-Paris-2024

Because the WTT offers no freedom in participation and the players who can participate are limited, according to the current format, it is possible Olympic selection trials will be held with reference to the World Championships, Asian Championships, All-Japan Championships, etc."

...

The big issue is the opacity of information. According to people familiar with the matter, this tournament only had a few days from the notification of the event to the deadline for applications, and the entry status was not disclosed. With limited information at hand, the Japan Table Tennis Association devised selection criteria with a focus on strengthening for the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, and applied according to the regulation of the number of participants per association, but the men that had many entries were young people who met the criteria but were not allowed to participate. Since the result was not known until the lid was opened, it was not possible to dispatch substitute players, which led to a loss of opportunity. On the other hand, for some countries, the number of women who exceeded the upper limit was allowed to participate.

WTT, which sets a large prize money, in order to encourage star players to participate and to attract sponsors, the top ranked players are automatically entered in higher tournaments, creating a system that is biased heavily toward the world class. For low-ranked players, it will be difficult to get an opportunity if the situation continues to be unpredictable whether they will be allowed to participate in the lower tournament. YOSHIHITO Miyazaki, General Manager of the Development Headquarters, also questioned that "not every registered player can be given a fair and impartial opportunity." Some within the association think that the unfair world ranking must be excluded from the selection criteria for the Olympics and World Championships.

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Germany as well doesn't seem to be too happy.

TT is a sports where team countries events do have a real meaning. while in Tennis, the Davis Cup or Federation Cup (for Women) are now tier2 events, where the best players, notably Federer often declined to play, which is a real shame.

It seems that WTT is a private initiative who didn't get the consensus from national federations whose goal is to bring more money to the sports (and to themselves) at the risk of destroying years of history of the sport in the same way of what happened to the Davis Cup.
 
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I would like to know Mr Dainton and ITTF's thoughts on the 4-player team format that I proposed here, or if they have any plans to utilise other 4-player team formats to allow a greater variety of players to be showcased. I understand that ITTF wants the spectacle where the best players of each team are guaranteed to meet each other, but we have the singles for that. The team event should encourage interesting matchups and team dynamics that wouldn't have occurred otherwise.
 
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Did you really make any effort to ask the ETTU to have any word to say about the WTT organization left to China hands only ?
Why is there no "Europe Coordinator" named yet ?
Do you think it was a smart decision to start those competitions formats before all the organization was ready, setup with all the majors continental TT unions being really in charge ?
Those 2 tournaments shows that when chinese competitors aren't there, european ones are proeminent: 3 europeans in the men's SF of the Star Contender tournament, why showing so much disrespect to the ETTU ?

Also, do you really think PWC, the company that have reviewed WTT's organization being implemented with "good governance", is a legit audit company considering all the scandals PWC have been involved in ? --> the La La Land 2017 Academy Award, the Lux Leaks, 2014 Tokyo-Mitsubishi, the 335 million dollars Tesco "mistake", the 2015 Los Angeles suit, and so many more ... ?
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1103576/report-finds-wtt-has-good-governance
https://fortune.com/2017/02/28/pricewaterhousecoopers-pwc-scandals-oscars/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...isabel-dos-santos-scandal-luanda-leaks-angola
 
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