The return of Ultimate Table Tennis, after a prolonged hiatus, has the fraternity excited Premium

UTT returns after pandemic-induced break, bringing top paddlers from across the globe to compete in India's IPL-style table tennis league. Promoters Vita Dani and Niraj Bajaj have worked to build the ecosystem, including getting foreign players, having enough Indian players, teams and broadcast. UTT has contributed to India's success at the international level, with a steady crop of top paddlers performing consistently. Fans can engage with the league through VR and AI mini-games, with UTT registering 20M viewership and 38M video views.

The Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex — off the Mumbai-Bangalore National Highway’s Pune bypass — is constantly buzzing with activity. But the presence of a majority of top athletes in an extended suburb goes unnoticed for the locals.

The return of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT), after a prolonged, pandemic-induced break, is no exception. Except for a handful of table tennis fraternity, there is hardly any awareness of the fact that the likes of A. Sharath Kamal, Manika Batra and G. Sathiyan will be rubbing shoulders with and against top paddlers across the globe in table tennis’ IPL avatar.

But the table tennis circle is excited at its core, with the return of UTT after almost four years. When pandemic hit in 2020, not too many were optimistic about whether UTT, founded in 2017 with 11 Sports’ Vita Dani and Arjun Award-recipient Niraj Bajaj as its promoters, would witness its fourth edition.

But Dani and Bajaj were confident about getting the league back on track as soon as normalcy returned and UTT was granted a window by the International Table Tennis Federation.

No wonder then Bajaj, a business tycoon, is unwilling to admit that UTT is being revived this year. “I don’t think this should be called a revival as Covid was in nobody’s hand. We had to accept what was happening and we are glad we could move ahead from those experiences,” Bajaj told The Hindu on Thursday.

Ask Bajaj whether 2023 was more challenging than the first edition in 2017 and he has no doubts in his mind.

“But today as we are all geared to host the fourth edition, I think there is enough belief in the ecosystem when it comes to Indian table tennis’ growing perception as well as the existence of IndianOil Ultimate Table Tennis. Strong and committed sponsors and team owners, the emergence a steady pool of upcoming Indian players other than the known and celebrated stars and the eagerness of foreign players to be part of UTT say much about how much the event has come through in the last three editions.”