UPTTATTFI

THE UTTAR PRADESH TABLE TENNIS ASSOCIATION
(Affiliated with The Table Tennis Federation Of India & UPOA)
Regd. Office :- 163, Rabindra Palli, Faizabad Road, LUCKNOW – 226016
(Registered under Society Act XXI of 1860)

PRABHAT C. CHATURVEDI, IAS (Retd.)

President-UPTTA

The U.P. Table Tennis Association owes its foundation to Mr. D.K. Raman and was formed  by Mr. K.R. Kirloskar as it’s first Secretary. But not until 1954 when the 1st Northern India Championship was held was there any activity. This meet held at Saharanpur under the guidance of then State Secretary Mr. Mahendra Kishore whipped up interest in the game. Same year Saharanpur hosted the II  U.P. State Championship. U.P. participated in the Nationals for the first time in 1954. U.P. has hosted four National Championships. The 19th Nationals was held at Saharanpur in 1956,  39th Nationals at Allahabad in  1976,  49th National again at Allahabad 1987 and  61st  Sr. Nationals at Lucknow in January – 2000. and many National Ranking tournaments and International test matches.

We have completed 55 years in the glorious run of our Table Tennis. Tournament is a matter of envy and a thing to covet. We can boast of having staged test matches between Hungary, Singapore & India in 1958 at Lucknow and again between Japan & India in 1973. We staged these test matches at four centers in the state viz. Lucknow, Kanpur, Saharanpur and Meerut. The following year we staged test matches between S. Korea & India at three centers in the state Viz. Lucknow, Kanpur and Meerut and again triangular test matches between Hungry, Japan and India at four centers Viz. Lucknow, Moradabad, Meerut and Agra in January, 1977. The main idea and the compelling theme of our state in taking upon itself the responsibility and exacting task of running Inter Nationals tournaments and test matches is to create in our players more interest and experience for this beautiful game.

The precious little achieved in yester-years is important worth reckoning.

The following players earned National Ranking.

1. Vinod Mehta in Junior Boys and later on in Men’s section.
2. Pradeep Bhargava ranked twice in Junior Boys.
3. Tapan Bose, S.K. Dey and Biswajit Gon in Junior Boys.
4. Veenu Bhushan, Taru Bhargava, Anju Gupta in Girls
5. Nitin Puri, Sanjeev Kapoor, Sanjay Kathuria, Rajat Kathuria, Rahul Dutt,
   C.S. Mukherjee, Sanjeev Pathak, Vivek Kohli, Vivek Pandey, Bhushan Singh Thakur, Zabarjeet Singh, Anil Sen, Sanjeev Shankar, Parag Agarwal, Rahul Prakash also got India Ranking in Boy's.

Veenu Bhushan won the National Junior Girls title in 1973 and won the Bronze medal in the 2nd Asian Table Tennis Championships held at Japan in the year 1974 and got Asia Ranking No. 3.

State Govt.  has sponsored Nitin Puri and Sanjeev Kapoor the then promising Junior Boys for an extensive Coaching in Japan in 1976. Two Boys Pankaj Bhargava and Rajat Kathuriya were sent to South Korea for advance training. During the year 1980 two girls Anju Gupta and Taru Bhargava were sent to South Korea for higher training.

In the history of Table Tennis in U.P.  for the first time Men’s team secured 3rd place at Vallabh Vidya Nagar, Gujarat during 1977 and again won the Bronze Medal in the year 2000 at Lucknow. Our Boys team won the Team Championships title in the year 1976 at Allahabad, which created lot of interest in the game. During the year 1979 National Championships held at Durgapur (West Bengal) Sanjay Kathuria and Rajat Kathuria played the finals of the Men’s Singles and Boys Singles.  After a lapse of 10 years our Boys team won again the Gold Medal at Muzaffarpur National in the year 1987.  Sri Vivek Kohli played finals in the Boys singles event.  Veenu Bhushan, Rajat Kathuria  Vivek Kohli , Bhushan Singh Thakur, Shabali Bano, Amit Srivastava and Zabarjeet Singh are having the distinction of playing International tournaments. Shabali Bano won the Cadet Girls National Championship in the year 1989 at Indore.

Recently our Cadet Boys team won the Bronze Medal in the 70th Sub Junior National & Inter State Table Tennis Championships recently concluded at Vijaywada from 24th to 30th November, 2008.

In the year 1989 Sri Raj Bhargava, IAS, the then President of U.P. Table Tennis Association got allotted the land near the K.D. Singh Babu Stadium for construction of the Table Tennis Complex of the Association. On 18th December, 1990 Sri Mulayam Singh Yadav, Chief Minister of U.P. laid the   foundation stone of the complex. On 26th June, 1993 Sri Raj Bhargava, IAS, Secretary, Information and Broadcastings, Govt. Of India and President UPTTA inaugurated the Complex.  UPTTA is the only Association having their own Complex and Office.

Sri Prabhat C. Chaturvedi, IAS has taken the charge of UPTTA President in the year 1994 prior to this he was Vice President.  First Table Tennis Academy in U.P. was setup at Meerut in September, 2001 and after Meerut second U.P. Table Tennis Association, Table Tennis Academy was setup in Lucknow in collaboration with Hema Kohli’s Table Tennis Academy Meerut. U.P. Table Tennis Association and ‘STAG’ International Sports joined hands to uplift the standard of Table Tennis in Uttar Pradesh. Sri Prabhat C. Chaturvedi, IAS President of the Association was instrumental or rather the backbone of the idea of setting the Academy and also instrumental in making U.P. Table Tennis Association a very strong Association. Sri R.N. Banerji has taken the Charge of U.P. Secretary from Sri Ziaul Hasnain in the year 1983. Sri Arun Kumar Banerjee has taken the charge of Hony. Secretary from Sri R.N.Banerji in the year 1989. Sri R.N.Banerji again elected unanimously Hony. Secretay  for 1993-97. Sri Arun Kumar Banerjee again re-elected unanimously for the term 1997-2001, 2001-2005 and 2005-2009. Sri Arun Kumar Banerjee nominated Joint Secretary of The Table Tennis Federation Of India in the year 2001-05 and again re-elected unanimously for  2005-09  and  2009-2013.

Sri Arun Kumar Banerjee, Hony. Secretary of the Association who is also an International Table Tennis Umpire has represented the country as International Umpire in many International events including World Table Tennis Championships at Japan, Manchester (UK), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), SAF Games Colombo (Sri Lanka), Commonwealth Championships held at Glasgow (Scotland)  and also  been  nominated Manager of the India TT Team for the 16th Asian Tennis Championships held at Bangkok and 4th Children of Asia International Sports Games–Yakutsk (Russia) Team Leader  Indian Olympic Association contingent (Table Tennis).

Shri Nishith Kumar Lahiry, Treasurer of UPTTA is an International Umpire and represented the country in World Youth Table Tennis Championships – Hungary – 2002. He has taken the charge of Hony. Treasurer in the year 2001.

Mr. Prabhat C.Chaturvedi, IAS, who is presently Secretary to the Govt. of India has been elected Vice President of The Table Tennis Federation Of India for the year  2001- 05, 2005- 09 and recently re-elected unanimously for the another term of 4 years from  2009-13. Under the dynamic leadership and guidance of Mr. Prabhat C. Chaturvedi UPTTA achieved a lot. We have conducted 5 National Ranking and two National Championships in the year 1987 at Allahabad and 2002 at Lucknow in a very short notice under his leaqdership.

Under the guidance of our President Sri Prabhat C. Chaturvedi, IAS U.P.T.T.A. has done lot for the players and development of Table Tennis. We have renovated the entire Table Tennis Complex. Association has started Rs. 100000/- Cash Award for players during the Ranking and State Championships.

Due to this excellent track record The Table Tennis Federation of India has given us the responsibility to host the 19TH ASIAN TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS AT LUCKNOW from 16th to 22nd November, 2009.