The Table Tennis Federation of India has threatened action against the star player, Manika Batra, after she refused to have the national coach Soumyadeep Roy by her side during one of the games in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. The Secretary General of the federation, Arun Kumar Banerjee has said that the matter will be taken up for discussion once the whole contingent is back in India.
Banerjee stated that Manika Batra's behaviour was 'unprofessional', calling Soumyadeep Roy, the personal coach of fellow Indian player Sutrtha Mukherjee, who was knocked out in the second round of Women's singles.
Speaking to the news agency ANI, Banerjee said, "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."
Banerjee further said that Manika Batra had applied for a personal coach and they had recommended as well but demanding that her personal coach be in place of Soumyadeep and calling him Mukherjee's personal coach was wrong on her part.
Manika had earlier requested the grant of the field of play (FOP) access for her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape but the access wasn't granted even though his last-minute approval for travel to Tokyo was given.
Manika's campaign came to end on Monday after she lost to Austria's Sofia Polcanova in the third round of women's singles. She and Sharath Kamal were already eliminated from the mixed doubles competition after losing in the Round of 16.