Manika Batra was on Wednesday left out of the India table tennis squad for the Asian Championships beginning from September 28 in Doha. The star player did not attend the mandatory national camp in Sonipat.
The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) had made it clear that any player skipping the camp would not be considered for selection. The squad was picked on Wednesday and the list was posted on the federation’s website.
The federation had made attendance in camps compulsory following the Tokyo Olympics.
Manika had informed the federation that she would like to continue training with her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape in Pune.
In Manika’s absence, Sutirtha Mukherjee will lead the women’s team. The other members are Ayhika Mukherjee and Archana Kamath.
Senior pro Sharath Kamal will spearhead the men’s challenge in the company of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Manav Thakkar and Sanil Shetty.
Sathiyan, Desai and Sutirtha joined the national camp late due to different reasons. Recently, Manika accused national coach Soumyadeep Roy of match-fixing for asking her to throw a match during the Olympic qualifiers. The TTFI has formed an inquiry panel to probe the allegations.
Roy will not be travelling to Doha. Arup Basak and Monalisa Baruah Mehta will be the two coaches.