[adham]

@Ghosttalker

Your English is fine and it is much better than my German. In fact, I do remember receiving your message and I was sure that I answered you. But I do not keep these answers, so perhaps you are right (I answer more than 300 e-mails per day). Let me try to answer you now:

Actually I try to answer all e-mails I receive if they are polite. I am sorry if I missed your e-mail.

You are right about the reason to establish a minimum friction level, it is to control the level of the surface of the rubber and to avoid post-************** treatment and to have a standard that all can follow. You are also right that this rule did not affect the top players.

Yes, I am aware that this rule has highlighted the cheaters and that many players try to get rubbers that do not meet our rules. This is the same as in doping in sport, unfortunately the honour system in sports seems to be disappearing.

I am very sorry that you consider that you wasted 3 years and that when you found a new substitute this also was banned. I feel very bad for you. But when a rule is changed these are the consequences on the generation that lives through the rule change. At the ITTF we must think of the future of our sport as well. Imagine those players that played with speed glue for more than 20 years and now have to adapt to water-base glues. Unfotunately it affcets this generation, yours and mine, but the ITTF must think long term and we sinverely believe that we are doing the right thing. If we are wrong, we will change the rule for the best interest of our sport. Let me explain why a rubber could be authorized and then later lose the authorization. Initial tests are made on samples provided by the manufacturer. Then periodically we test the rubbers taken from the retail market (shops), and sometimes we find irregularities and the samples do not meet the ITTF criteria. We inform the manufacturer and try to make corrections to the problem. But sometimes the manufacturer refuses and says that the ITTF is wrong, then we have a long standing argument about it. But in most cases the manufacturers are very good and they try to correct the problem.

The Wright brothers made fools of themselves, Gallileo made a fool of himself and many visionaries also made fools of themselves. The ITTF was also a fool with the 40mm ball and the 11-points and the new service rule and the yearly world championships, etc., etc. I prefer to be a fool with a vision than a bureaucrat with no vision.

We allow a rubber as long as it meets our criteria, and we do not give the authorization when it does NOT meet the criteria, it is a consistent, regular and simple procedure. You know that millions of products are recalled by governments after they receive initial approval. But if on further inspection the product is found not to meet the specific criteria it is removed. This is normal.

You have a very good point about allowing frictionless rubber and making it legal. maybe this is the solution. but first a national association must propose this new rule and the majority at the ITTF meeting must vote in favour. I welcome such a proposal, but I do not decide. In fact, I do not have a vote at the Annual general meeting and I only have the deciding vote (if the vote is 50%-50%) at the Board of Directors. I personally have no problem with your proposal.

TT- master has gone to court and this is fully their right and I respect it. If the judge rules in favour of TT-Master we will of course follow the ruling as the judge states it. In the contrary happens, then we will still work with TT-Master as an important part of the Table tennis family and we will do all we can to help them.

You are right, Enez cannot detect everything and always someone will cheat. Just like the IOC cannot detect every drug taken by athletes and always someone will cheat. So? Does that mean we abandon in what we believe and allow everything so that we have no problems? This would be like the IOC saying "we always have cheaters so we will no longer test for drugs". No, this is not the naswer. The answer is that we need better detecting equipment and we need to educate young players to be honest and follow the rules. And if the rule changes, then OK, welcome, no problem.

It makes no difference if we put a sign "Tested by ITTF", we really do not know what the players use, we never new even when we had approved glue. How can we check what they use at the source? The only thing we can do is test the rackets and impose very strict and severe penalties to stop the players from using illegal substances.

I am sorry that you are so frustrated, I hope you take your racket and go hit some TT balls hard and fast to get your frustration out. I applaud your passion and concern and I hope that you have the patience to ride through this transition time. I am sure that a year from now we will not have such a severe problem after a reasonable adaptation period.

Thank you for your time, and I hope I don't miss your next personal e-mail.

Adham