Table Tennis coach and player suspended after CCTV footage shows them fighting

An image of the fight between the coach and the player

A recent CCTV footage has captured a 19-year-old coach fighting with a female, who is reported to be his ward. The table tennis player and the coach have both been suspended from the upcoming National Games in Kerala following the incident.

The incident took place on the 26th of December, 2014, during the 76th National Cadet and Sub-Junior Championship in Andhra Pradesh. The player was one of 16 players from Chhattisgarh to take part in the competition.

The President of the Chhattisgarh State Table Tennis Association (CSTTA), Sharad Shukla tried to calm the storm brewing over the incident claiming, ‘it was a fight over a telephone’.

Following the incident, the Secretary of the Chhattisgarh Association resigned from his post.

Sharad Shukla told NDTV, “I got a report of this incident on 31 December. It occurred on the night of 26 December.

“We found out that the player and coach were fighting over a mobile phone, which was seen on the CCTV footage. This is a fight over a telephone and nothing else.

“We have suspended both coach and the player until (further) inquiry.”

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) came to know about the incident recently and they want to conduct an independent inquiry to get to the bottom of the shameful incident.

Dhanraj Choudhary, General Secretary of TTFI, said, “This unfortunate incident came to us only two days before.

“We have asked the Chhattisgarh association to give us the complete report. Till we get the report, I cannot comment.

“We have told the state association that we want an independent and neutral inquiry and want to know what exactly happened. Really unhappy about the nomination of a 19-year-old as coach. We will take serious view and action against the association.

“We have an executive board meeting on January 17. We will discuss this matter there.”

Olympian and Indian Table Tennis player, Neha Aggarwal took to Twitter to express her shock at the incident:

This is shocking "@ndtv: Female table tennis player, male coach suspended after shocking CCTV footage emerges http://t.co/16oN5yKYP0"

— Neha Aggarwal (@nehaaggarwal) January 13, 2015

Here is the CCTV footage of the incident. However, it remains unclear what prompted the two to react in such a manner and we shall remain in the dark until the official report is submitted by the three-member panel which has been set up to investigate the incident.