Dear Mr. Sharara,

How are you?
Today, April 1st, I read from a Chinese table tennis forum that ITTF is going to implement new rules on equipment effective 2011. Among the new rules, there's one regulating that the thickness of sponge has to be between 1.5mm to 2.0mm. Can you please confirm whether this is true? If it is true, a lot of players, both professional and amateurs, will have to give up their current styles. I will be one of the "victims" of this new rule as you can see my racket setup below. Thanks for taking time to clarify.

Henry
Yinhe T-10 (CPen)
Tibhar Grass D.TecS (OX)
Joola Staccato (2.2mm)

"The experience of the last 2 years has shown that the banning of frictionless long-pimple rubbers has been ineffective. Furthermore it should be considered that an innovative technique had been obstructed which had added new features to table tennis. So I came to the conclusion that we should correct this mistake and I will strongly support the Swedish petition."

"With respect to the representation of table tennis in commercial TV I want to initiate some changes leading to longer rallys. This will definetely increase the attractivity of our sport. So I think of strengthening the position of defensive players by raising the aspect ratio of long pimple out rubbers from 1.1 up to 1.3 and lowering the maximum sponge thickness of pimple-in rubbers down to 2mm."