The Guyana Table Tennis Association has landed a three year deal with an India-based table tennis equipment manufacturer.
The deal was negotiated by GTTA vice-president Arron Fraser who was manager of the Guyana team to Cartegena, Colombia for the Latin American Junior Table Tennis championships and Colombian Open tournament.
According to a release from the GTTA, Fraser successfully negotiated a three year deal on behalf of the GTTA with CEO of Stag’s Vivek Kohli.
The International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) marketing personnel Miguel Delgado, was instrumental in arranging the deal.
According to the release GTTA president Anil Nandlall on June 25, signed the three year deal with the company which has decided to enter the Latin American market and will be sponsoring 22 countries in Latin America.
The sponsorship deal is a result of ongoing meetings between Kohli and Delgado, the President of the Guatemala Table Tennis Association and former President of the Latin American Table Tennis Union (LATTU).
Guyana now joins Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala and Trinidad and Tobago and the move was welcomed by GTTA officials who feel the support can only help this country’s quest for table tennis stardom.
The advent of Stag is seen as a major boost for table tennis in Latin America and Kohli was delighted with his first visit to South America.
“The response has been very positive, everybody is happy to work to try to develop table tennis”, he said.
“It’s a good situation for both parties, it’s good to help table tennis grow in this part of the world and it is good for our brand to become more universally known,” he added.
“I came to Cartagena to understand the scene in table tennis in Latin America and explain our products,” continued Kohli.
“It was essential to meet people, we are new to countries from Latin America and they are new to us; it was very important to meet people face to face and establish relationships.”
The offer made by Stag gives support to the developing countries in the sport of table tennis to develop even further.
Each of the countries, who have agreed terms, will receive 10 Stag table tennis tables plus surrounds, net and post sets, balls, scoring machines and scoring tables per year.
Furthermore, they each receive thirty sets of clothing for their national teams in the three year deal.
GTTA officials feel the deal will save them a significant sum in cost of uniforms over the next three years.
“It is quite staggering! Since every year our national team will be receiving this for the next three years which allows us to brand the team maybe the Guyana Eagles or something of that sort and save the GTTA a significant lot in terms of cost since uniforms for national teams cost a lot over time,” a GTTA official said.
The GTTA plans to request from companies assistance in sponsoring a few tables for the GTTA’s schools and communities programmes.
The GTTA is scheduled to receive it’s first year grant by October this year.
