Manika Batra, who earlier made match fixing allegations against national coach and received show cause notice from TTFI, is now being left out of the Indian squad for Asian Championship for not attending the national camp in Sonepat.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) announced the team for the ITTF-Asian Championships at Doha from September 28 to October 5. With the non-inclusion of Manika Batra, 97th-ranked Sutirtha Mukherjee will lead the women’s team. The other members are Ayhika Mukherjee, ranked 131 and Archana Kamath, ranked 132. The men’s team will be spearheaded by veteran Sharath Kamal who is ranked 33 in the world. The other members are G Sathiyan, ranked 38, Harmeet Desai, ranked 72, Manav Thakkar, ranked 134 and Sanil Shetty, ranked 247.
The TTFI had made it clear that any player not attending the camp will not be considered for selection. Manika Batra had informed the Federation that she would like to continue training with her personal coach in Pune. Likewise, Madhurika Patkar, India’s third best player, too, has not been included in the squad.
Earlier this month, Manika Batra alleged that the national coach had asked her to throw a match during the Olympic qualifiers in March. This was in reply to the show cause notice issued to her by TTFI after she refused to take the advice of Soumyadeep Roy, India’s national coach, during the Olympics.
