Home-grown or foreign players? STTA clashes with SNOC
Singapore's two governing bodies that decide on the lineup of table tennis players for the November Southeast Asian games are currently in disagreement.
What it boils down to: home-grown talent versus foreign talent.
Should we send our nation's top three players (world number 5 Feng Tianwei, world number 10 Wang Yuegu and Li Jiawei, ranked 23rd) or give the likes of 16-year-old Isabelle Li and 20-year-old Zena Sim the chance to represent Singapore, in a move to nurture local talent?
The Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has set its sights on the latter.
The association has withdrawn its nominations for the three Chinese paddlers for the November games in Palembang, Indonesia, and chosen nine other players including locals Li, Sim and Chinese-born players Sun Beibei and Yu Mengyu.
"I want to field local talent. I want to field Isabelle -- those are the reasons," said STTA president Lee Bee Wah to The Straits Times on Friday.
Singapore's National Olympic Council (SNOC) however, stresses the importance of Singapore sending its best.
It has not approved of any of the nominations submitted by STTA and asked the association why it removed the top three paddlers' names for the SEA games. The STTA is expected to give a formal answer by 4 August.
To Secretary-General of SNOC Chris Chan, winning SEA Games medals is important, especially for table tennis, which have been gold mines for Singapore.
"The SEA Games is something the man in the street understands and expects Singapore to win gold," Chan explained.
And with Singapore's heavy investment in foreign talents, major Games are a time for them to get onto the podium, he pointed out.
Lee disagreed, declaring instead that it is time for home-grown players to be given a chance to represent the country.
"Our foreign-born paddlers have been doing their part -- not just in the SEA Games but at the Commonwealth, Asian Games and Olympics," she said.
Meanwhile, Li's parents expressed disappointment at SNOC's response to the STTA's nominations.
Her mother, housewife Sim Kwang Huang, 50, said, "If the SNOC keeps wanting the STTA to send their best, no parent will want his child to go into sports because Singapore is more concerned about medals than developing local talent."
