Table Tennis star Manika Batra alleges national coach asked her to fix match during Tokyo Olympics qualifiers
In a response to TTFI's show-cause notice, Manika Batra has accused national coach Soumyadeep Roy of asking her to concede a match on purpose.
Indian Table Tennis star Manika Batra in a shocking revelation has alleged that the national coach Soumyadeep Roy asked her to "concede match" purposely during the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers in March, which was the prominent reason why she refused to take any help from him during her games in the Olympic Games.
In a report by the news agency PTI, Manika Batra in her response to Table Tennis Federation of India's (TTFI) show cause notice, said that she didn't bring any disrepute to the game by refusing Roy's help.
According to the sources at TTFI, Manika suggested that she would not have been able to focus on her match given that someone who asked her to throw a match was by her side.
In a response to TTFI secretary Arun Banerjee, Manika wrote, "Besides the need to avoid disturbance due to his last-minute intervention, there was an additional and much more serious reason behind my preference to play without the national coach," the Khel Ratna awardee alleged in her response to.
"The national coach had pressurised me during the qualification tournament in Doha in March 2021 to concede my match to his student to enable her to qualify for Olympics - in short- to indulge in match-fixing," the World No 56 added.
Since the coach hasn't responded to the allegations, Banerjee said that a further course of action will only be decided after Roy presents his case since the allegations are against him.
Manika said that she is ready to present the evidence of the incident to the authorities. "For asking me to concede the match, the national coach personally met me in my hotel room and talked to me for nearly 20 minutes," said Manika. He tried to promote his own student using unethical means under the pretext of national interest. He was accompanied by his student who trains in the private academy not only run by, but also named after him.
"From my side, I did not promise to oblige him and promptly reported this matter to a TTFI official. I decided not to obey the unethical command of the national coach. But his intimidation and pressure had its effect on my mental frame and consequently my performance," Manika further added.
The 26-year old was knocked out of the Olympics after reaching the third round.