Manika Batra slams Air India after denied boarding; TT star, team board other flight

New Delhi: Star Indian table tennis player Manika Batra, on Sunday evening tweeted her ordeal highlighting the grave mismanagement by national carrier Air India.

Batra, in her tweet, said that a team of seven Indian players including her, were denied boarding on an Air India Delhi-Melbourne flight due to overbooking.
Batra had tagged Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office in her tweet.

She wrote, "Our contingent of total 17 players and officials of Indian table tennis team including CWG medalist myself, Sharath Kamal, Mouma Das, Madhurika, Harmeet, Suthirta, Sathyan were supposed to fly today to Melbourne by AI 0308 to participate in ITTF World Tour Australian Open from tom."

"On reaching Air India counter we were told that flight is overbooked and only 10 members of TT team can fly which left us in a shock.7 of us are still unable to fly.All the tickets were booked by Balmer Lawrie. @Ra_THORe @PMOIndia Shocked at such mismanagement by @airindiain," she tweeted.

However, Batra later posted a photograph of herself on Twitter with a boarding pass in hand and thanked Neelam Kapur, Director General of Sports Authority of India, for taking prompt action and getting the tickets booked.

"I would like to thank @NeelamKapur mam for the prompt action and getting our tickets booked for tonight. Finally got my boarding pass and flying soon. Thanks @Media_SAI @Ra_THORe sir @PMOIndia sir," Batra tweeted.

The ITTF World Tour Australian Open is set to begin on Monday.