Not enough women paddlers at the TT national camp for Asian Championships

With Manika refusing to be part of the camp and Sutirtha Mukherjee, India’s second-best, also absent, the TTFI has requested the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to get Madhurika, Krittwika Sinha Roy and Takema Sarkar for the camp.

India's Ayhika Mukherjee joined the national camp on Tuesday. - G. RAMAKRISHNA

India's top three women paddlers - Manika Batra, Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Madhurika Patkar - have been absent from the ongoing National table tennis camp at the Delhi Public School (Sonepat) for the Asian Championships to be held in Doha from September 28 to October 5.

Ayhika Mukherjee, Archana Kamath and Sreeja Akula are the only high-profile names now. With Manika refusing to be part of the camp and Sutirtha Mukherjee, India’s second-best, also absent, the TTFI has requested the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to get Madhurika, Krittwika Sinha Roy and Takema Sarkar for the camp.

READ: Manika Batra: ‘I want my coach to be there for every tournament’

On the other hand, the Indian men's team will be in full strength in a few days. While Sharath Kamal, A. Amalraj, Sanil Shetty, and Manav Thakkar have been training in Sonepat for the last few days, G. Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai are expected to join on September 9.

“We have completely shut ourselves out from all controversies and are training hard,” said Sharath to Sportstar .