KARACHI, April 30: An 11-member Indian ping pong squad including five officials is due to arrive in Lahore from Delhi on Thursday to compete in the Pakistan International Invitational Table Tennis Tournament which runs at the Wapda sports complex from May 2 to 5.

“Yes, they have been issued visas by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi on Wednesday and are set to land in the Punjab capital by a PIA flight on Thursday,” a delighted president of the Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF), S.M. Sibtain told Dawn.

The PTTF had extended invitations to south Asian and central Asian countries and some of them like Iran, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have shown their willingness to compete in the following events later this year.

The PTTF plans to conduct five international tourneys across the country starting from Lahore. This will be followed by the second at Quetta from July 7 to 10, third at Karachi from Aug 25 to 28, fourth at Peshawar from Oct 10-13 and fifth at Islamabad from Nov 26 to 29.

Sibtain said top 29 men and as many women paddlers of the country will be joined by three men and three women from across the border.

The participants are to vie for the honours in the men and women singles and men and women team events.

The Indian paddlers become the first to travel to Pakistan after the 2004 Islamabad South Asian Federation Games as far as table tennis was concerned.

Squad:

Players: Anirban Nandi, Devesh Karia, Jubin Kumar (men); Susmita Ray, Mousumi Paul, Manasi Arun Bhagwat (women).

Officials: Syed Sultan Moosavi (manager), Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, Shyamal Das (coaches); Manoj Kumar Bose (international umpire) and Amlok Singh (referee).