Table tennis veteran Jean-Michel Saive has hit out at China's dominance of the sport, claiming that Chinese-born players who play for other countries risk restricting opportunities for home-grown players.
The 45-year-old Belgian, who will be competing at the European Games in Baku, also expressed his disappointment at the lack of leading American table tennis players.
Saive told reporters: "Chinese table tennis is good for our market in Asia, but for the world they are too strong and there are too many players.
"When those players are not good enough for the national team, they go abroad to represent another country. You look at the 2013 European Championship quarter-finals and seven of the eight women were Chinese.
"It's a shame we don't have big American players. Americans love to play ping-pong in their basement or in bars, but not competitive table tennis. But if they can like baseball, they can like table tennis."
The men's table tennis competition at the European Games begins on Tuesday June 16.
Giuseppe Labellarte
