Two table tennis players to be slapped with a ban for skipping Commonwealth Games matches

Two table tennis players from the Bangladesh National team are likely to be slapped with a ban after the two paddlers - Sonam Sultana Soma and Sadia Aktar Mou, skipped their matches at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 and went to visit their relatives in London, instead.

"The decision was taken unanimously at the executive committee meeting on Saturday as they tarnished the image of the country by giving walkovers in the matches they were scheduled to play on August 5," Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation's general secretary Sheikh Mohammad Jahangir Alam said on Tuesday.

Both the female paddlers of the Bangladeshi side will be suspended from the international and domestic table tennis circuit for three and two years, respectively, for this incident.

A show cause notice will be issued soon to the two players.

Of the two players, Soma was scheduled to play 3 matches - women's doubles, singles and mixed doubles while Mou was only featuring in the doubles. However, neither of them could report to the authority concerned about the participation following their absence on the match day.

"Soma suffered a minor muscle injury on August 4 and pulled out in the middle of a game before giving a walkover in the next match," Alam said, according to The Daily Star.

"Our team doctor assessed the injury which was not a major one and the doctor advised her to take rest as she had matches the next day."

On the next day, things took a different turn.

"I had a meeting with all players on August 4 and asked them not to go outside the Games Village, but the next day Soma called me to express her wish to visit London. I asked them about their matches of the day," Alam said.

"Later they did not pick up my calls, not even calls from Chef de Mission and returned to the Games Village at 8:00pm."

After causing such an incident during a multi-sporting extravaganza, Soma and Mou will now be slapped with a temporary ban.