CWG 2022 LIVE: India’s table tennis contingent has courted controversy once again in the middle of their Commonwealth Games campaign. The defending champions crashed out against minnows Malaysia in the quarterfinals. During the clash, in a bizarre incident, men’s coach S Raman was seen courtside instead of women’s coach Anindita Chakraborty while Manika Batra and Co. were in action. Follow India at CWG 2022 LIVE on Insidesport.IN
CWG 2022 LIVE: India’s Table Tennis team courts CONTROVERSY AGAIN, men’s coach S Raman sat on the courtside for women’s game as India crash out vs lowly Malaysia – Check out
India’s designated women’s team coach Anindita Chakraborty was absent during the women’s tie against Malaysia as men’s coach S Raman was present on the sidelines. India, the defending champions, were thus knocked out by Malaysia, with some of their players not even featuring in the world rankings.
CWG 2022 LIVE: India’s Table Tennis team courts CONTROVERSY AGAIN, men’s coach S Raman sat on the courtside for women’s game as India crash out vs lowly Malaysia – Check out
The coaching issue has created a stir with CoA likely to take action. “This should not have happened, women’s coach should have been guiding the players in the match. I will take this up with the team,” said S D Mudgil, member of the Committee of Administrators running the suspended Table Tennis Federation of India as quoted by TOI.
Mudgil was supposed to be the team manager of the Indian team in Birmingham but stayed back to accommodate the squad’s request for a sports psychologist. Gayatri Vartak thus joined the team on Monday.
Raman was seen coaching Reeth Rishya as the quarterfinal went down to the wire. He also happens to be the personal coach of male player G Sathiyan.
“It was very close. Combinations were totally different for us. A defensive player, a left-hander and right hander mix up was little challenging for us. The girls fought hard and it was an off day,” said Raman after the unexpected result.
CWG 2022 LIVE: India’s Table Tennis team courts CONTROVERSY AGAIN, men’s coach S Raman sat on the courtside for women’s game as India crash out vs lowly Malaysia – Check out
After the shocking loss, the Manika Batra-led squad did not even stop for the media interaction, which is a standard protocol in all multi-sporting events causing further controversy. India’s campaign has been surrounded by controversy since the beginning with three Indian players have taken to court to contest their non-selection. One of them, Diya Chitale, got successful and was included in the team.
As per PTI, team sources suggest that all is not well in the Indian camp. However, there is no clarity on why coaches were swapped for the all-important kno0ockout clash. .
“The atmosphere in the team is the not best, let’s just say that. Women’s coach should have been sitting courtside since she knows more about the players. Don’t know why Raman decided to sit instead,” the source said.
Star player Manika Batra. during the Tokyo Olympics, had refused to take the help of then-team coach Soumyadeep Roy after her personal coach was not given access to the field of play. This time around the World No.1 has been allotted her personal coach and will aim to turn her campaign around with doubles and singles yet to begin.
CWG 2022 LIVE: India’s Table Tennis team courts CONTROVERSY AGAIN, men’s coach S Raman sat on the courtside for women’s game as India crash out vs lowly Malaysia – Check out
Follow InsideSport on GOOGLE NEWS/Follow All Commonwealth Games 2022 LIVE Updates and Scores with InsideSport.IN.