Beijing, Sep 4 (IANS): The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Friday announced a restart plan for international table tennis, with the women's World Cup, the men's World Cup and the ITTF Finals to be staged in China in November.

International table tennis action has been suspended for half-a-year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Being called #RESTART, the plan will feature a special series of events scheduled for November 2020, operating in a regional approach to ensure a smooth transition from national to international activity for players, reports Xinhua news agency.

Both World Cups and the Finals will be staged in China with support from the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA), meaning that the women's and men's World Cups will no longer take place in Bangkok, Thailand, and Dusseldorf, Germany as originally planned.

"Ensuring a safe return to international table tennis has been our utmost priority ever since the pandemic broke out. I am delighted that, with the fantastic support and hard work carried out by everyone at the ITTF over several months, we have managed to get events back up and running before the end of 2020," said the ITTF President Thomas Weikert.