The 12 franchises in the CEAT Ultimate Table Tennis League (UTT) on Monday picked their coaches for the second edition which runs from June 14 to July 1.
Defending champions Falcons TTC chose to go with their winning coach for the second edition, opting for Soumyadeep Roy in the draft pick for coaches.
The Yoddhas, who were next in line, swooped in on Hungary's Ferenc Karsai, a coach with over 25 years' of experience at the highest level. He was at the helm for DHFL Maharashtra United last season.
Interestingly, the RP-SG Mavericks too showed faith in an Indian, opting for Arup Basak as their first choice coach. The Challengers and the Yoddhas managed to get back their previous coaches, A Muralidhara Rao and Sandeep Gupta, to make it a grand day for Indians.
In an exciting format that tested the teams' ability to quickly think and fine-tune their strategies on their feet, the six teams were required to pick one foreign and one Indian coach each.
The Challengers, Dabang Smashers T.T.C and DHFL Maharashtra United opted for Peter Engel (Germany), Andrei Filimon (Romania) and Francisco Santos (Portugal) respectively to complete Round 1.
In the next round, the order was reversed, mandating DHFL Maharashtra United to pick the best available Indian coach. They zeroed in on N. Ravichandran.
Sachin Shetty, Elena Timina of Netherlands and Slovenia's Vesna Ojstersek were chosen by Dabang Smashers TTC, RP-SG Mavericks and Falcons TTC in the second round.
--IANS
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