Having Personal Coach Is Basic Requirement For Individual Events: Manika Batra

After her show cause notice incident, Manika Batra revealed a personal coach is needed for individual events and she also explained why she refused Team India's chief coach's help during the Tokyo Olympics.

Star table tennis player Manika Batra believes having a personal coach is a basic requirement for an athlete playing an individual sport and if she had court-side access to hers in the Tokyo Olympics, she would have done better. Speaking to PTI, Manika said the authorities, including the Table Tennis Federation of India, should not mind personal coaches travelling with the players even in multi-sport events like the Olympics. "Chief coach is fine for team events but we also have singles event where certainly one needs his/her coach as that person knows more about the training and game of his player," said the world number 56. She said the India chief coach can focus on the team competitions, while personal coaches steer individual campaigns. Her comments come after she was show-caused by TTFI for refusing national coach Somyadeep Roy's help during her singles matches in Tokyo after her personal coach Sanmay Paranjape was denied field of play access due to a limit on accredited personnel by the Games organisers. She also cited the example of individual sports like badminton and tennis where it is common practice for players to take their personal coaches in all tournaments. In her response to the show cause notice, Manika has raised questions on Roy who has not been called for the ongoing national camp as a result.