Nepal is hosting four South Asian countries in the Regional Championships, a pathway for the Table Tennis World Cup, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Teams from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are participating in the tournament with four players each in the men’s and women’s categories.

According to the All Nepal Table Tennis Association (ANTTA), the tournament will take place at the Lainchaur-based National Table Tennis Training Centre.

“The centre is well-equipped for the event,” Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer, the competition manager, said. Iyer, who is also the first Indian to be nominated as a member of the Umpires and Referees Committee (URC) of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), stressed that he was satisfied with the ANTTA’s management of the event.

Brijendra Bahadur Hamal, president of ANTTA, informed that the tournament, a part of the annual calendar of the Asian Table Tennis Union, will see men’s and women’s team events in a round-robin format. The winning teams will qualify for the ITTF World Team Championships Finals in 2026, Hamal said speaking at a press conference in Kathmandu on Monday.

As per the tournament regulations, “All members of the group shall compete against each other and shall gain 2 match points for a win, 1 for a loss in a played match and 0 for a loss in an unplayed or unfinished match.”

Except for India, which is bringing 10 players (five men and five women), eight players (four men and four women) have been registered from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives. “But a team can only field four players each in each category,” the ANTTA informed.

Similarly, there will be three officials each from India, Bangladesh and the Maldives, two from Sri Lanka, and five from Nepal.

The Nepali male players participating in the event are Sanyog Kapali, Rubin Maharjan, Rajeev Chikanbanjar and Gananjaya Dahal. Similarly, Bianca Rai, Evana Thapa, Nabita Shrestha and Yonggi Poudel are the female players.

“A selection process was held for the participants,” said Kuber Prakash Singh, general secretary at ANTTA. “The players have been training well for the tournament as we look forward to winning at our home ground.”