Table tennis champion Mankia Batra and a few others earlier today was stranded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi as Air India did not allow them to board the flight to Melbourne. The paddlers are supposed to participate at the ITTF World Tour Australian Open starting tomorrow in Melbourne, which starts from tomorrow. Out of 17 table tennis players, only 10 were allowed to board the flight.

7 including Manika Batra were not allowed to board the flight owing to the flight being overbooked. Manika Batra complained about the same on Twitter and tagged the Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Prime Minister's Office to look into the matter. "Our contingent of total 17 players & 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," Manika tweeted.

"On reaching Air India counter we were told dat flight is overbooked & 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," she added.

Director of SAI, Neelam Kapur came to their rescue and assured that she will look into the matter immediately. Manika thanked her and tweeted to her, “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,” read Manika’s tweet.

"The TT team have been booked on an alternate flight leaving later tonight," Kapur confirmed on her official Twitter handle. Air India also issued a clarification.

Here's the second part of the tweet.

 

The Director of SAI further informed that the players made it to Melbourne at 12.40 instead of 10.30. Her tweet read, "The team reached late. They were supposed to reach three hours before the flight but reached at 10.30 for the flight at 12.40," read her tweet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 22, 2018 11:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).