IMAGE: Manush Shah and Swastika Ghosh had approached the court after the Committee of Administrators (CoA), running the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), had excluded them from the final CWG squad announced earlier this month. Photograph: Files
Indian table tennis players Manush Shah and Swastika Ghosh’s writ petitions challenging their exclusion from the country’s Commonwealth Games squad were on Monday dismissed by Delhi High Court.
Shah and Ghosh had approached the court after the Committee of Administrators (CoA), running the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), had excluded them from the final CWG squad announced earlier this month.
“I was told by our lawyer that our case has been dismissed,” Manush’s father Utpal told PTI.
The selectors did not include Manush in the men’s team although he was in the top-four as per the criteria set by the CoA. The men’s squad included veteran Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty, with Manush on standby.
Swastika, 19, was named as a standby with the revised women’s squad comprising Manika Batra, Chitale, Reeth Rishya and Sreeja Akula.
Archana Kamath, the second highest-ranked Indian player at 66th after Manika Batra (39th), too had moved the court after being dropped from the Indian team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Her case is coming up for hearing on June 22 at Karnataka High Court.
Archana was initially included in the squad as an ‘exception’ as she did not meet the selection criteria laid down by TTFI, but was suddenly dropped by the CoA and Diya Chitale was brought in her place.
Interestingly, Chitale also had moved the court after being initially excluded from the squad.
The CWG is scheduled to be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8.
World C’ships: Sajan Prakash finishes 25th, fails to progress to final
Ace Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash failed to move to the semifinals, finishing 25th in the men’s 200m butterfly event of FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The 28-year-old clocked 1:58.67 to finish eighth in his heat. The top five swimmers from his heat progressed to the semifinals.
The two-time Olympian, who is coming off a shoulder injury, was ranked 25th in the overall list.
His personal best in the event is 1:56.48, which he clocked last year to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
In the men’s 800m freestyle event, Delhi swimmer Kushagra Rawat finished 23rd.
The 22-year-stopped the clock at 8:15.96 to finish fifth in his heat, failing to progress to the finals.
Kushagra had clocked the personal best of 8:08.32 in the 800m freestyle event last year during the Senior National Aquatic Championships.
The top eight swimmers move to the final in the event.
