TT duo to be banned for bunking Commonwealth Games matches

National table tennis players Sonam Sultana Soma and Sadia Aktar Mou are set to be suspended from international and domestic competitions for three and two years respectively as the duo went to visit relatives in London skipping their matches of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this month.

"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 today.

A show cause notice will be sent to the two players before the decision is officially taken, he informed.

Jahangir also informed that Soma was scheduled to play three matches – women's doubles, singles and mixed doubles while Mou was scheduled to play the doubles but they could not report the authority concerned about the participation following unavailability of Soma and Mou.

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

"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."