The Mercantile Knockout Table Tennis Tournament conducted by the Mercantile Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka which boasts of a history of more than 50 years kicked off at S. Thomas’ College Indoor Sports Complex on the 13th of June 2013.
Six divisions battled for the championships: Men’s A, Women’s B, Men’s B, Men’s C, Men’s D and Men’s E. This totaled up for a massive 33 teams representing 16 firms. These firms had been taking a keen interest on the sport which makes them privileged participants for decades.
The first day was about the approach to the event which consisted of Men’s B division rounds and Men’s D division rounds. The second day was breathtaking with the most skilled players battling for the Men’s and Women’s A division championships.
The B division closed up with Commercial Bank team beating Singer Sri Lanka’s for 3 matches to 1. Commercial Bank Team who won the game comprised ofChameera Ginige, Iresh Manjula, H. M. De Silva and Roshan Egodage while the Singer Sri Lanka was represented by Wasantha Perera, N.M. Thilamanadha, K. H. Dudley and K. Sunil Shantha. The C division was won by the Dialog Team after beating MAS Intimates for 3-1 matches.
In the light of the success of the event MAS holdings were the proud donors of the two challenge trophies: Men’s A division championship and Women’s A division championship. Following the victories of this championship Mercantile Table Tennis association will be conducting two more championships, Mercantile Open Novice and Veteran Individual Table Tennis Tournament and Mercantile Team League Table Tennis Tournament, which will be taking place later this year.
The tournament helps to build up interest among the Table Tennis players after leaving school. It also encourages firms to recruit top table tennis players into their firms which gets them the opportunity to represent the country. For example, the present Sri Lanka’s National Champion is part of MAS intimates – Nirmala Jayasinghe, former champion is currently employed at the Seylan Bank – Kesiri Chalitha.
Table Tennis is being encouraged by many cooperates since it’s a sport played indoors which gives the employees to practice at their comfort at any time of the day. Being the second fastest game which seconds only to Ice Hockey, Table Tennis is enjoyed by many players today now more than ever.
The Mercantile Table Tennis association is also looking forward to conduct an all island open table tennis tournament to encourage the school players. The level of competition is expected to be very high at this and will feature lot of sponsors to further encourage the sport.
The special aspect of the tournament is there are three players who have been taking part in the tournament for over 25 years consecutively like in no other sport. They are Wasantha Perara from Singer Sri Lanka, Gamini Morayas of Astron Sports club and the president of the Mercantile Table Tennis association who had been playing for over 35 years Mr. Rajeeva Wijethunga since 1979.
“At the early 80s this tournament took place in a mega scale with top organizing standards. This was mainly because many of the leading firms took lot of interest in the sport. John Keels, Browns,Walkers, Maharajas, Hayleys, Ceylon Tobacco were some of cooperates who invested a lot in the tournament” said Mr. Rajeeva Wijethunge commenting on the history of the tournament to ThePapare team. “I believe if a leading cooperate takes up the sport it’ll boost the sport again to previous standards. With the increased number ofplayers I am optimistic that this will happen in the near future. “
The closing ceremony was headed by Mr. Dinal Peris the Human Resources Director of MAS Intimates while the championship Trophies were won by MAS Intimates, in the Men’s A round after beating Seylan Bank for 3-2 matches and in the Women’s A rounds after beating Commercial Bank for 2-1 matches.
