Silchar/Hailakandi, Sept. 2: Sports goods manufacturer Stag International will open the first table tennis coaching academy in the Northeast at Udharbond Table Tennis Club in Cachar district of Assam.

STAG-TTC Table Tennis Academy will be inaugurated on Sunday by former Indian international paddler Bhushan Thakur, who is also the director of the firm's project to produce one million players by 2020.

Udharbond TT Club executive member and its former general secretary Pranabananda Das has been appointed the director of the academy, said the club's president Surya Kumar Sarma.

Das said they got the proposal from the company after they successfully organised a five-day table tennis camp, conducted by Mumbai-based Table Tennis Federation of India Level-I coach, Parag Ankolekar, in their indoor stadium last month.

"We never thought of getting an opportunity to sign an agreement with a multinational company like Stag, which has been working for the promotion of sports, to open an academy here. They were satisfied with our existing infrastructure and thus offered the proposal," he added.

The club has signed an agreement with Stag for three years.

"Stag will bear 50 per cent expenditure required to set up a full-fledged academy. Besides, they will provide equipment like rackets, T-shirts and boards, among other things, at 50 per cent concession," Das added.

Stag currently has four academies - one each in Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Panipat - in India.

"Besides providing help in infrastructure development, Stag will provide us expertise to train young paddlers. They will also help in producing new coaches from the region," he said.

"The company will take some senior players from here to their academies in other parts of the country to provide them quality coaching and help them so that they later on impart training to the young paddlers in the region. We have decided to send two of our senior paddlers, Partha Pratim Deb and Sanjeev Sharma, for the training," Das added.

The young paddlers in the age group of four to 12 years will be trained in the academy.

"Stag will also promote this academy on national and international platforms. The players will be given an opportunity to take part in the Intra-Stag table tennis championships," said Sharma.