File photo of India’s leading women’s rower Manika Batra. file | Image source: The Hindu
India’s leading rower Manika Batra has sought intervention from the Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) after she was excluded from the country’s table tennis squad for the Asian Games, questioning the transparency and consistency of the selection process.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Thursday evening (June 18, 2026), hours after the official announcement of the team, the former Asian Games medalist said that her exclusion was “extremely disappointing, not only because of the result, but because of the way the selection criteria appear to have been interpreted and applied.”
The world number 51, who has also written to the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), the Sports Ministry, the International Table Tennis Federation and the Sports Authority of India (SAI), said she has not been informed of any specific reason for her exclusion from the squad announced on Thursday (June 18, 2026).
“I respectfully request the Honorable Sports Minister and the leadership of the Indian Olympic Association to look into this matter to ensure that the process is transparent, consistent and fair for all athletes,” Maneka stated.
The 31-year-old said that if the selection framework is based on a combination of world rankings, national rankings and the discretion of selectors, then “each component and its application” must be clearly explained to the athletes. She also questioned whether similar criteria had been applied across selection cycles, noting that players outside similar classification thresholds had been accommodated under special consideration in the past.
Manika, a mixed doubles bronze medalist at the 2018 Asian Games, stressed that her current ranking of No. 51 in the world represents only a marginal drop outside the top 50. “I’m still very close to this category… I find it difficult to understand how this alone becomes a deciding factor that outweighs long-term performance at the highest levels,” she said.
However, TTFI’s selection policy, which was drawn up in November 2023 after a series of selection controversies and court cases, follows a structured points-based system. The policy allocates 50% weight to national rankings, 40% to international rankings, and 10% to selectors’ ratings.
Maneka has not competed in domestic events for the past two seasons, making her last appearance on the national circuit at the Senior National Championships in Panchkula in December 2023.
Hindu Understands that the nine-member selection committee held two virtual meetings on June 7 and 9 to finalize the teams for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, a day before the International Table Tennis Association’s June 10 deadline for team submissions. While the top four spots on both the men’s and women’s teams were straight picks, the final spot generated significant controversy.
Sutirtha Mukherjee and Swastika Ghosh are separated by a narrow margin in the ranking calculations, while Maneka is also mooted for fifth place, despite trailing the pair by around 15 points. With no consensus reached, the matter was put to a vote. The committee ultimately voted 5 to 3 against Maneka’s selection, with one member abstaining.
A similar voting process was needed to decide the final spot for the men, with Payas Jain getting the nod ahead of Ankur Bhattacharjee.
“This statement is not about a personal grievance or special considerations. It is about transparency, consistency and equal application of the selection criteria,” Manyika said, while seeking a detailed explanation of the decision and weightage given to each selection criterion in her case.
Published – 19 June 2026 at 09:23 AM IST
