TTFI to announce team for Table Tennis Asian Championships on Sept 16

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) will announce the team for the upcoming Asian Championships on September 16. TTFI secretary Arun Banerjee had reiterated the eligibility for getting selected in the Indian team after an executive meeting held on Saturday.

As per the guidelines, only players who are part of the ongoing national camp will be eligible for selection. This puts serious doubts over star player Manika Batra’s participation as she is yet to report to the camp. Her mixed doubles partner Gnanasekharan Sathiyan, though, joined the camp.

Sutirtha Mukherjee has also joined the camp in Sonepat after recovering from fever.

Batra and the table tennis federation are currently at loggerheads due to an alleged match-fixing saga. The federation formed an inquiry committee to probe Batra’s allegations against head coach Soumyadeep Roy.

🇮🇳's ace paddler, Manika Batra, while responding to TTFI's show-cause notice, has reportedly accused the national coach, Soumyadeep Roy of pressurizing her to lose a match in the Olympic qualifiers.She mentioned this as the main reason for her to refuse his help at #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/61cs5XUGzM

— Sportskeeda India (@Sportskeeda) September 4, 2021

Federation’s vice president Chiranjib Choudhuri will chair the five-member committee. The panel needs to submit its report within six weeks.

The decision was taken at TTFI’s executive meeting that was held virtually. Janendra Jain and Parth Goswami are the two lawyers on the panel, while Yashpal Rana is the other member.

Batra had alleged that Roy, a Commonwealth Games table tennis champion, had asked her to throw a match in March during the Olympic qualifiers.

The Asian Games gold medalist cited this as the main reason why she did not take help from Roy during her singles campaign at the Tokyo Olympics.

TTFI looking to hire foreign table tennis coach

Meanwhile, the table tennis federation is looking to hire a foreign coach. They have not managed to get one in over three years due to various reasons including the pandemic. TTFI is keen is to recruit an overseas trainer at the earliest to begin preparations for the Asian and Commonwealth Games scheduled for next year.

Former Spanish player Alfredo Carneros is the frontrunner for the position. TTFI secretary Arun Banerjee said they are in talks with a few coaches and will soon come to a decision.

"We lost a lot of time due to COVID. We are on the lookout and are talking to a few coaches. A decision will be made soon," he was quoted by PTI as saying.