ITTF President discusses 42-mm balls and increased net height

In an article posted on the ITTF site, Adham Sharara discusses his dissatisfaction with China sweeping the Olympics, his disappointment with Germany’s performance, and some new changes to the game after players had time enough to adapt to the Speed Glue ban.

One of the changes being discussed includes changing the 40mm ball to a larger 42mm ball and possibly increasing the net height by 1 centimeter.

The ITTF has made several drastic rules changes. Are there any further to come?
We should always improve. No changes just to change anything, but there are still many options.

Which ones for instance?
The enlargement of the balls from 38 to 40 millimetres has had a good impact on our sport. The players first complained rightly that the quality of the balls suffered. That’s where we insist. We already have 42 millimetre balls in a test series and are waiting for the results. Beside that I discovered that there is no 40 millimetre ball in the world. All of them are slightly bigger than 39.5 millimetres. And of course, the increase of the net up to one centimetre is always a topic. But for me it is clear that we will not approach a next rules change until the players had time enough to adapt the new circumstances owing to the new gluing rule.

Do you want to heighten the net and increase the ball size to slow down the game and to make it more comprehensible?
Yes, I want to bring back the defensive players in our sport. That’s attractive and I will only stop developing our sport when the people in Canada, Germany or also in your country, Austria recognise the players on the streets and ask for autographs; when the TV stations fight for the broadcasting rights; and when all the halls are packed with spectators. Only when all this is done we may be happy and stop temporarily with the development of our sport.

So in an effort to find out more about this I emailed Mr. Sharara directly asking him if these rumors were true. He did in fact confirm them, but reassured me that no official proposal for these changes have been formally introduced. Once a change like this is introduced, “a series of experiments would have to be conducted and a long time frame would be in order before any such change would take place.”

There is also no official proposal to change the net height, but he did state that there is an intent from the Swiss TT Federation to push this change into reality.

Tags: 42-mm ball, Adham Sharara, ITTF, net height