The table tennis federation of India Secretary General Arun Kumar Banerjee has made it clear that Manika Batra’s refusal to have national Soumyadeep Roy by her side during the Tokyo Olympic matches. This action of hers will be taken into discussion once the participants in Tokyo Olympics return to India.
Banerjee said the executive committee will decide on what action needs to be taken as this looked very unprofessional for Manika Batra to call her national coach as the personal coach of Sutirtha Mukherjee.
Arun Kumar Banerjee said that “Personal coach is a wrong statement. Sutirtha plays in Soumyadeep’s academy, but he is the national coach. To say her coach is not allowed with her is wrong on Manika’s part. She knew before leaving from India what is the access of the coaches. All the players and coaches know the extent of access each has.
Manika had applied for a personal coach, which we had recommended as well. When you know his access, to come to Tokyo and demand that her coach be there in place of Soumyadeep is wrong. To call him the personal coach of Sutirtha is wrong as he had taken national camp even before coming to Tokyo. The criteria are fixed and I asked Soumyadeep to speak to the manager and report as he is there, I strongly oppose this”.
When asked Soumyadeep Roy about Manika’s action, he said: “What is on her mind I can’t say. Surprised she bought this up here after knowing the criteria. I will discuss this with the executive committee and decide what action needs to be taken. We have to bring this up when we are back”.
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Earlier Manika had requested India’s chef-de mission BP Baishya to allow the field of play (FOP)access for personal coach Sanmay Paranjape.
But MP Singh said FOP access for Manika’s coach wasn’t granted and the federation is looking to find a possible situation when they encounter the same situation next time. “We are not against players but she should tell this to the government. Last-minute her coach got approval to travel to Tokyo but FOP access was not granted to him”, said MP Singh. “I think keeping this incident in mind we will have to make a rule that if this happens next time who will take a call,” he added.
