Paddler Sathiyan expresses shock over AI treatment

The Indian contingent, comprising 17 players and officials, are scheduled to participate at the ITTF World Tour Australian Open starting on Monday in Melbourne. On arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday, only 10 members of the team were allowed boarding after Air India told them that the flight was overbooked. Among the seven, who could not fly was Commonwealth Games gold medallist paddler Manika Batra and veteran Mouma Das.

The national carrier drew criticism on social media after the incident. “Very unfortunate and shocking as we had a confirmed ticket as well from Air India and we never expected something like this would happen,” Sathiyan said from Melbourne.

Along with the 40th ranked player, celebrated paddler Sharath Kamal and six others have reached the venue while Mouma and Manika are slated to arrive later.

“I am really disappointed and hope we don’t face such problems in future from the airline,” Sathiyan continued.

“It will be quite hard for the players who come late but I still feel it was really nice that SAI, sports ministry & TTFI (Table Tennis Federation of India) made good efforts in the last minute to fly them as early as possible with alternate arrangements.