Ace paddler Manika Batra has been omitted out of India's squad for the Asian Table Tennis Championships. The Asian Championships are scheduled to be held in Doha from September 28 to October 5.
The Table Tennis Federation of India has decided to bring in a policy change to National Camp's rules and regulations. TTIF has made it mandatory for the paddlers to be a part of the national camp.
Only players that are part of the national camp before a specific tournament will be considered for selection into the national team to represent India.
The Table Tennis Federation of India had earlier made it clear that any player not attending the camp would not be considered for selection. The team was picked on Wednesday.
Manika has informed the table tennis federation that she would like to continue training with her personal coach in Pune.
Several Indian paddlers have reported to the camp. G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, and Sutirtha joined the national camp late due to different reasons.
Sathiyan was training in Poland, Harmeet was in Germany while Sutirtha was down with a fever, but all three had marked their attendance at the camp.
Manika Batra's allegations against coach Soumyadeep Roy
The Table Tennis Federation of India had issued a show cause notice to Manika Batra regarding her refusal to take help from her coach during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Batra then alleged that her coach Soumyadeep Roy forced her to lose a match against one of his students during the Olympic qualifiers.
That was the reason cited by the paddler for not taking any kind of service from the coach during her singles match at the Tokyo Olympics.
Men's and women's team members for the Asian Championships
Men's team: Manav Thakkar, Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty.
Men's Doubles: Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan, Manav Thakkar, Harmeet Desai.
Women's team: Sutirtha Mukherjee, Sreeja Akula, Ayhika Mukherjee, Archana Kamath.
Women's doubles: Archana Kamath and Sreeja Akula, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee.
Mixed doubles: Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath, Harmeet Desai and Sreeja Akula.