Young Bengal paddler Sreosree Chakraborty, who secured her maiden Under-11 national ranking title in Vijayawada, is now stuck along with hundreds because of Cyclone Michaung which has wreaked havoc on India’s east coast.
Cyclone Michaung made landfall in Bapatla, a coastal district of Andhra Pradesh, bringing heavy rainfall to Vijayawada, about 80km away, where the tournament concluded on Monday.
A Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) official said on Tuesday that there are about 200 players in the age group of U-11 to U-19 stuck along with their family members.
The Vijayawada national ranking event was the penultimate round of the five zonal tournaments, which will conclude with the Panchkula leg scheduled from December 8.
The players are sweating over whether they would be able to reach Panchkula in Haryana in time for the competition. “We are booked on the Tamil Nadu Express to New Delhi from where we will go to Panchkula,” Sreosree’s father Mrinmoy Chakraborty said from Vijayawada. “The scheduled time (of departure) is 4am but we doubt the train will leave Chennai tonight (Tuesday night),” he said.
The TTFI is monitoring the situation and the competition department will take a call on whether to postpone the Panchkula tournament.
