The Hindu : Sport / Table Tennis : Indian Bank stops Rajath's sponsorship

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 08, 2006

Sport

Sport - Table Tennis

Indian Bank stops Rajath's sponsorship

K. Keerthivasan

CHENNAI: Indian Bank has stopped sponsoring A. Rajath Kamal, the No. 2 paddler in the State, from this season. The 20-year-old student of Loyola College will no longer receive Rs. 2,000 per month apart from kit, boarding and lodging facilities which he had been getting for the last four years. Rajath is representing his club, Young Men's Indian Association, in the ongoing State-ranking tournaments.

From now on, Rajath cannot represent the institution in any bank tournament or inter-institutional championship.

With Rajath representing Tamil Nadu in the team and individual events of the Jaipur Nationals in February this year, the Bank Sports Board took this decision as it felt that Rajath, being a top player for the bank, should have represented BSB atleast in the individual event (the BSB men's team did not qualify for the Jaipur Nationals).

In a similar instance, Uday Athreya (Union Bank) represented Karnataka in the Panvel Nationals in 2003, and was banned for one year from representing BSB. Explains Athreya, "I wanted to play for Karnataka (team) and BSB (individual) in the 2003 Nationals, presuming I would be allowed to do so. During the earlier Nationals at Manesar, Deepak Thukral and Vineet Chopra had represented Punjab in the team event and BSB in the individual event.

"However, during the manager's meeting in the Panvel Nationals, it was decided that a player cannot play for two different teams."

The important question is whether three other young players — A.V. Nivedita, Sivananda Seshadri and R. Abishek — sponsored by Indian Bank will face a similar fate in the future.

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