TABLE tennis’ world governing body narrowly rejected a proposal to make the sport more spectator friendly by introducing bigger balls in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on Tuesday. The International Table Tennis federation (ITTF) were meeting to decide whether to adopt a 40mm ball instead of the traditional 38mm model. However it now seems inevitable that the bigger ball will be approved at the ITTF’s next biannual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur in February as the vote of 124 federation members only fell two short of the required 75% majority needed to secure the rule change. Making the ball more visible is seen as vital if the game is to become more attractive to spectators, and more importantly, television.