Tokyo Olympics: Manika Batra's refusal to take advice from national coach puts TTFI in spot

By Nitin Srivastava
Tokyo [Japan], July 24 : India's ace table tennis player Manika Batra refused to take guidance from national coach Soumyadeep Roy during her women's singles event here at Tokyo Metropolitan Gym -- Table 1 on Saturday.
Manika wasted no time and won the match against Britain's Tin-Tin Ho in four straight games 11-7, 11-6, 12-10, 11-9 in exactly 30 minutes. Indian paddler never seemed fazed by Tin-Tin Ho during the whole match.
"She refused to take guidance from national coach Soumyadeep. She said 'I don't want him on my bench to guide me'. I intervened in the matter, tried to make her understand but she was not ready," Team leader M P Singh (TT) told ANI.
"I said he is national coach, so she replied back 'mera coach bhi aya hai' (my coach has also come). After this incident, the national coach was very upset and he left for the room but I asked him to coach others," he added.
Manika had earlier requested India's chef-de-mission BP Baishya to allow the field of play (FOP) access for her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape.
But MP Singh said FOP access for Manika's personal coach wasn't granted and the federation has to see what do when these type of situations arises next time.
"We are not against players but she should tell this to the government. Last-minute her personal coach got approval to travel to Tokyo but FOP access was not granted to him," said MP Singh.
"I think keeping this incident in mind we will have to make a rule that if this happens next time who will take a call," he added.