The Table Tennis Federation of India Secretary General Arun Kumar Banerjee has made it clear that Manika Batra’s refusal to have national coach Soumyadeep Roy by her side during matches at the Tokyo Olympics will be taken up for discussion once the contingent returns to India. Banerjee said the executive committee will decide on the course of action that needs to be taken since it was unprofessional from Manika to call Soumyadeep, the personal coach of Sutirtha Mukherjee.


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“Personal coach is a wrong statement. Sutirtha plays in Soumyadeep’s academy, but he is the national coach. To say her coach was 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 personal coach, 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 is fixed and I asked Soumyadeep to speak to manager MP Singh and report it as he is there. I strongly oppose this,” he told news agency ANI.


Asked if this was unwarranted from Manika, he said: “What is on her mind I can’t say. Surprised she brought 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.”


Manika had earlier requested India’s chef-de-mission BP Baishya to allow the field of play (FOP) access for her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape. But MP Singh said FOP access for Manika’s personal coach wasn’t granted and the federation has to see what do when these type of situations arises next time.


“We are not against players but she should tell this to the government. Last-minute her personal 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.