Meherpur disqualified
The Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation (BTTF) yesterday scrapped Meherpur District Association from the men's team event of the 37th Senior National Table Tennis Championship for a 'violation of rule of the competition.'
The game's local governing body took the decision based on a complaint from the Chittagong team which stated that Meherpur team had fielded three players who did not belong to that team.
Meherpur had secured semifinal berth after having won four matches but the tournament committee forced them to play another match against Narail team violating the fixture.
Meherpur refused to play against Narail which forced the tournament committee to halt the matches of the men's team event for the last three days.
Federation's general secretary Khandoker Hasan Munir said they tried for an amicable solution but failed to convince the Meherpur team.
“They broke rule of the competition by playing the match against Chittagong without their own players,” Munir said.
“Even though we tried to reach an amicable solution to keep them in the competition, they didn't change their stance which is why we had to disqualify the team.”
Meherpur team player Nazmul Haq Salman claimed that they are victims of politics.
“According to fixture we had four matches and we won all of those to secure the semifinals,” he said. “But later federation officials asked us to play another group match against Narail violating the fixture and we refused to play. And then we became victim of politics because Chittagong didn't follow the rule before lodging complaint against us.”
The tournament committee said they will reschedule the fixtures of the men's team event after disqualification of Meherpur.
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