CWG: TT federation still waits for complimentary tickets

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) says the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has not responded to its request for complimentary tickets for table tennis matches at the Yamuna Sports Complex, though many seats remain vacant.

We wrote a letter to the secretary general of OC for providing us with complimentary tickets four days ago. We have got no response from him till date. Table tennis is not a popular game in this country and it is critical for us to invite people who can fund us for organising tournaments, a TTFI official told IANS requesting anonimity.

The complex can seat 4,200 people with 1,100 seats at the show courts and 3,100 at match courts. Forty percent of the tickets have been reserved for the general public and the rest for sponsors and foreign tourists. Not many foreign tourists have been seen at the complex, according to the official.

The federation officials said since they did not have the complimentary tickets they took the help of police officials Monday to get entry to the complex for an 'important' guest.

"We did not have the tickets Monday but we had a very important guest coming to see a match. So, we spoke to the police officials for granting him entry without the ticket. There was no other option, said the TTFI official.

Lalit Bhanot, the secretary general and the official spokesperson of the OC, was not available for comments.