CWG 2022: Table tennis player Archana Kamath's petition to be included in Indian team for competition dismissed by court

Indian table tennis player Archana Kamath suffered a setback to her 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) dreams when the High Court of Karnataka dismissed her petition on June 22, which questioned her omission from the Indian women's table tennis team.

Paddlers Manush Shah and Swastika Ghosh’s writ petitions challenging their exclusion from the CWG 2022 squad were also dismissed by Delhi High Court.

Archana Kamath went to court challenging the Committee of Administrators' decision (CoA) decision to exclude her from the team while managing the affairs of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI). Kamath is ranked fourth in the world in doubles and is India’s second highest-ranked singles player at World No. 66.

Read: India at CWG 2022: Full list of Indian athletes who have qualified for Commonwealth Games 2022 (Updated)

The selection policy of the TTFI gives 50% weightage to domestic rankings, with 30% to international rankings and 20% is left to the selectors’ discretion. In the domestic circuit, Archana Kamath is ranked 37.

Archana Kamath was not included in the squad as the selection policy does not give weightage to international singles rankings and doubles rankings.

A Division Bench comprising of Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar and Justice C.M. Poonacha passed the order after the TTFI pointed out that her selection was done based on the existing criteria for the selection of women players.

Dismissing the petition, the court noted:

“These are matters within the domain of the expert committee and in this case in the domain of the Committee of Administrators. The Delhi High Court has also dismissed a writ petition filed by (Swastika Ghosh) wherein the very selection was challenged. In our view, the petition does not merit consideration and accordingly it is dismissed.”

Indian table tennis squads for CWG 2022

The following players will now don the Indian colours at the Birmingham CWG 2022.

Men: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, and Manush Shah (standby)

Women: Manika Batra, Diya Chitale, Reeth Rishya, Sreeja Akula, and Swastika Ghosh (standby)