Sharath & Co in trouble for missing national events

PUDUCHERRY: India's top paddlers Sharath Kamal, Anthony Amalraj and Harmeet Desai may face the selectors' wrath for not playing in the domestic tournaments when the Indian team is selected for the upcoming Asia Cup in Jaipur (March 13-15) and World Championship in Suzhou, China (April 26-May 3).
All three players have been busy playing leagues in Germany, Poland and Sweden and have not taken part in the domestic tournaments.Though both Amalraj and Harmeet, who represent Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), are taking part in the ongoing National Table Tennis Championship here, Sharath could not make it to the event due to his club commitments with Borussia Düsseldorf in Germany.
None of the three players have the necessary points to qualify for the international events and the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) isn't happy with the situation.
"Nobody is indispensable here and a player can't take his selection for granted. However, it's difficult to say whether the federation will keep out the reputed players and prefer those who have been performing well in the domestic circuit.
"It's important to send the best team for such competitive championships, but at the same time it'll be difficult for us to select those players who have been ignoring domestic events regularly," a TTFI official told TOI on Wednesday.
Sharath has been one of the best in the country but his performance has recently dipped as he failed to win the national title in the last four years. It was told that the TTFI doesn't want to ignore the likes of G Sathiyan, Devesh Karia, Sanil Shetty, Subhojit Saha and Soumyajit Ghosh- who have done consistently well in the national circuit.
"Playing leagues abroad is fine and the federation has never stopped any player from doing so. But that doesn't mean that a player will skip the national championships for playing in a foreign league. The players who have done well in the domestic competitions can't be ignored," the official said, hinting at a stormy selection meeting.
PSPB win men's and women's team TT titles
PUDUCHERRY: Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) extended their reign for yet another year as they lifted both the men's and women's team titles at the 76th Table Tennis Senior Nationals at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday. In both the team finals, PSPB men and women beat their West Bengal opponents by identical 3-0 verdicts. PTI Results (Team Events): Men: Final: PSPB bt West Bengal 3-0 (Soumyajit Ghosh bt Sougata Sarkar 13-11, 12-10, 14-12; G Sathiyan bt Sourav Saha 9-11, 11-5, 11-1, 11-7; Harmeet Desaia bt Surajit Das 5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7); Women: Final: PSPB bt West Bengal 3-0 (Ankita Das bt Mousumi Paul 11-7, 11-6, 11-6, K. Shamini bt Anandita Chakraborty 11-6, 11-5, 15-13, Manika Batra bt Pallabi Kundu 4-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5).