India's table tennis squad for CWG announced, women's team will need SAI's clearance

table tennis team on Tuesday named a four-member women's squad for the Commonwealth Games, subject to clearance from the Sports Authority of India, after Archana Kamath was included in the side despite not meeting the existing criteria. Kamath is the second highest-ranked Indian player at 66 after Manika Batra (39) but she was not among the top four players going by the existing selection criteria which also factors in domestic performance. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) plans to tweak the selection guidelines in the future.

The chosen players are Manika, Archana, Sreeja Akula (rank 66), Reeth Rishya (100), with Diya Chitale (129) as the standby. Experienced players like Ayhika Mukherjee and Sutirtha Mukherjee were ignored. Explaining the reasons behind awaiting concurrence from SAI, S D Mudgil, CoA representative and chairperson of the selection committee said, "Under the existing selection criteria, one of the members (Archana) falls outside the top four.

"The selection committee is convinced that the existing guidelines are "flawed" and has moved to make necessary course-correction, with new guidelines effective from October 1. "However, in this transitionary phase, with an eye on a rich medal haul in Birmingham, we have included the said player in the team. She (Archana Kamath) is one half of the doubles pair (Manika the other) that is ranked No.

4 in the world and which will be the top seeds at the Commonwealth Games. "Therefore, the selection committee feels that this is a case worthy of consideration by SAI." The men's team which has been picked is a more straightforward one, consisting of the great Sharath Kamal, G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai. Manush Shah will be the standby.