Twenty-five players will represent East Singhbhum in the 16th Jharkhand State Table Tennis Championship to be held in Giridih from October 20 to 23.

The team will compete in senior, junior, sub-junior and cadet categories in both team and individual matches during the meet.

Announcing the team, East Singhbhum District Table tennis Association (ESDTTA) secretary U.K. Chatterjee said it was a balanced side and most of the paddlers were in good form. "We expect a solid show from our side in the state championship," he added.

The 15-member men's outfit comprise Pravesh Narang, Mayank Thakur, Rajeev Lochan Chakraborty, Mrinmaya Pradhan, Avinav Kumar Singh, Palwinder Singh, Subhodeep Das, Ravi Sharma, Subhashish Bark, P.L. Teja, Utkarsh Mehta, Saksham Sharma, Karan Raj, Rashid Mazhar and Himanshu Mahto while Shruti Mahanand, Chandni Kumari, Simran Kumari, Hansika Rai, B. Rakshita, Archita Dey, Shivani Tudu, Disha Narang, Sulvi Shraddha and Khushboo Kumari are in the 10-member women's side.

Apruva Dasgupta and Avijit Dey will accompany the team as coach and manager, respectively. The outfit will leave for the venue on October 19 by Tata-Danapur Express.

The steel city has a good training apparatus functioning at JRD Tata Sports Complex in Bistupur . Most of the 36-odd trainees are school students and have talent to excel in district and state competitions. The cradle has an experienced coach in form of Apurva Dasgupta.

The district association is also contacting more schools for bringing them under the ambit of table tennis.

"There was lot of craze for the sport in the 80s and 90s but it declined over the years. We want more and more young paddlers to get attracted to table tennis," Chatterjee said.