Paddler Diya Chitale challenges CWG selection in court

Diya Chitale, despite being No. 3 in the women’s National rankings, was named as a standby, while Archana Kamath, who is ranked No. 4 in the world in doubles along with Manika Batra, was included in the squad.

FILE PHOTO: Diya Chitale has requested the Delhi High Court to include her in the list of four players in the women’s team for the Commonwealth Games.

Diya Chitale, one of the most promising youngsters in the Indian table tennis circuit, has challenged her exclusion from the women’s squad for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) starting in Birmingham on July 28, in the Delhi High Court.

In a writ petition, accessed by Sportstar , Diya has requested the high court to “include” her “in the list of four players in the women’s team” for CWG and has sought a direction to be given to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) “to refrain from ratifying any selections made by” the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) “without strictly adhering to the Existing Criteria and provisions”.

The case is likely to be listed for hearing on June 13.

Earlier in the week, the court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) announced the women’s “provisional squad”. Chitale, despite being No. 3 in the women’s National rankings, was named as a standby, while Archana Kamath, who is ranked No. 4 in the world in doubles along with Manika Batra, was included in the squad.

Besides stating that Archana does not break into top four either with the existing or the proposed new selection criteria, Diya's petition to the court claims Archana is not eligible to be selected as a doubles specialist since she did not participate in the doubles category in the Senior National Championship in April.