TT players with chief minister V D Satheesan
The petitioners alleged that players were made to compete until 2 am, raising concerns over player safety and an atmosphere of fear that exists among players at the recent tournaments organised under the aegis of the Kerala Table Tennis Association (KTTA). She said 17 academies boycotted the event over safety concerns. Michael alleged several players suffered injuries during the Kollam ranking tournament due to inadequate playing space and unsuitable flooring.
The petitioners raised concerns over the manner in which the RSC tournament was conducted, where senior category matches were allegedly not held as announced. The group pointed to inconsistent tournament standards, including different match formats, alleged use of non-approved equipment, lack of advance communication on fixtures and schedules, and delays in distributing announced prizes.
Kochi : Table tennis matches that ran until 2 am and players competing in an “atmosphere of fear” were among the several grievances raised by a group of senior players, a coach and a player’s parent, who met chief minister V D Satheesan on Wednesday and submitted a signed petition. When a parent contacted a KTTA official to complain about the late-night matches, the official used abusive language and issued threats,” Krishnan said. “Entry fees collected for the cancelled tournament were still not refunded,” she said. They said this forced players and parents to return the following week, causing additional expenses for travel and accommodation.
They urged him to order an independent, high-level inquiry into how the sport is run in the state. The delegation included senior table tennis players Reeva Anna Michael, Smrithi Krishna, Bharath Krishnan and Amal A S, coach Adharsh Tom, and Smrithi’s mother, Sajitha N P. They also highlighted instances of repeated administrative lapses, unfair practices, and poor transparency. “Ranking and fixture system was unfair, with highly ranked players and players from the same clubs or districts being drawn against one another in the early rounds. Repeated requests for a transparent seeding and fixture system were not acted upon. They also demanded mandatory technical inspections of venues, transparent ranking and fixture systems, uniform match formats, approved equipment, qualified officials, advance publication of schedules, refund of Kollam entry fees, stronger financial and administrative accountability.
Referring to the cancelled Kollam tournament, Navas said KTTA had called off the event by 10 am, but the rebel group, seeking to create a controversy, announced a boycott and grabbed headlines.
The people behind it are creating unnecessary problems to disrupt KTTA’s functioning,” he said. “Why would they boycott a tournament that had already been cancelled?” he asked. Meanwhile, KTTA vice-president SAS Navas rejected the allegations, calling them a conspiracy against the association. “An illegal table tennis association has been operating in Kerala for the past few years. He added that players involved in the tournament boycott had been issued show-cause notices, to which many are yet to respond.