Manika Batra, who was left out of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Asian Table Tennis Championships, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court on Monday, criticizing the obligation of obligatory participation in a National Coaching Camp from the Indian Table Tennis Federation (TTFI).
Justice Rekha Palli gave the Central Government Advisor two days in which he took the instructions for a petition alleging that National Coach Soumyadeep Roy pressured Batra to throw away a match to qualify for the Olympic 2020s from one of his trainees and asked the Sports Ministry to investigate the Federation’s leadership.
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According to the court, the charges against the coach were severe, and the Center should be more aggressive. “There’s a point to be made. We have a key player on our team. We must strike a balance. According to the judgment, if there are serious charges against the coach, the Union of India must take action. “Leave it to Centre to provide directions. In the end, she is the country’s highest-ranking player today,” the judge remarked.
Batra’s chance to compete in the 25th ITTF Asian Table Tennis Championships, 2021, which will be held in Doha from September to October, has been thwarted, according to senior lawyer Sachin Dutta, despite her meeting all merit-based requirements. He requested the court to put the ruling on hold to compete in another international tournament in November.
“In November, there will be an event. This rule must be suspended immediately. It will put an end to my career,” Dutta remarked, pointing out that personal coaching is encouraged in a variety of other sports. The federation’s lawyer refuted all of the claims, claiming that the national coach was not present at the national camp.
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The Commonwealth Games gold medalist and Khel Ratna awardee claim in the appeal that the federation is conducting its selection processes in a non-transparent way, targeting certain individuals like herself and working against the interests of sports and athletes. She claims that the national coach was running a private table tennis academy at the same time, resulting in a clear conflict of interest.
According to the argument, Table Tennis is an individual sport that needs specialized training with support personnel, and thus the prohibition on personal coaching is arbitrary, illogical, and ridiculous and has no bearing on achieving greatness in an individual sport.
