India player Swastika Ghosh has sent a legal notice to the Table Tennis Federation of India, asking why she should not be in the India team for next month’s World Table Tennis Championship in Durban despite qualifying for the tournament.
The notice, which was mailed to TTFI late on Tuesday evening, also states that if the federation fails to reply within a week, she would move court.
Swastika, the Howrah-born Maharashtra paddler, is currently in Osaka, Japan, for a month-long advanced training programme under coach Qui Jian Xing. The training stint is funded by the ministry of sports and youth affairs under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.
Swastika, 19, along with Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula, had earned a berth for India through the Asian region continental selection trial held in Doha in January. While Batra and national champion Sreeja will represent India in the world meet, Ghosh finds her name missing.
National runner-up Sutirtha Mukherjee and Reeth Rishya Tennison are the other two players who have made the cut.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has put up on its website the names of the four paddlers who would be representing India in Durban. The TTFI website though is yet to upload the men’s and women’s squads.
“It is a deliberate attempt to ruin my daughter’s career,” Swastika’s father and coach Sandip Ghosh alleged on Wednesday.
TTFI insisted it had gone by the book.
“It’s not necessary that if you earn a berth you will be in the squad. The ITTF changed the rules in 2021. Now only the top-ranked players are eligible,” a TTFI official said.
Swastika is now ranked ninth in the country, while Sutirtha is No.2 and Reeth is one below.
Last year, in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games, Swastika had moved court over her exclusion from the India squad.
