India’s top-ranked women’s table tennis player Sreeja Akula hasn’t yet received her prize money for being the winner in singles and doubles events at the 2022 Senior National Championships held in April. She is the only medallist who is yet to get her prize money. Not only in singles but she hasn’t got her prize money for doubles too while her doubles partner Ayikha Mukherjee has received her’s.
“It’s not a small amount. I should get more than Rs 2 lakhs. We keep sending emails but get no proper reply,” Sreeja told The Indian Express on the sidelines of the National Games.
The tournament took place in April at Shillong, Meghalaya and Sreeja, representing RBI, had won the women’s singles and the women’s doubles. Sreeja had beaten 38-year-old Mouma Das 4-1 in the final and teamed up with Ayikha Mukherjee to beat the RSPB pair of Takeme Sarkar and Prapti Sen in the doubles final.
While Mouma Das and most men’s singles medallists have received their payment, Sreeja hasn’t and doesn’t know why.
She has written a letter to the CoA and the Meghalaya association asking why she hasn’t received her payment but has got no concrete reply.
The Table Tennis Federation of India was suspended recently and the court-appointed CoA has been running Indian table tennis. The Indian Express reached out to SD Mudgil, who’s part of the CoA, but there was no reply on the matter.
The Telangana paddler said it normally takes a month for the money to get credited.
Sreeja has been in tremendous form the past year. After winning the National TT ranking tournament, she was part of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games squad where she teamed up with Sharath Kamal to win India’s first-ever mixed doubles gold.
She also reached the final of the women’s singles and women’s doubles of the National Games, but lost both encounters.
Apart from Sreeja, Gujarat’s Manav Thakkar also hasn’t received his money for reaching the quarterfinal of the men’s singles event. Like Sreeja, he too hasn’t got any proper reply.
Junior and Youth Nationals winners too in limbo
Sources have told this paper that the winners of the Junior and Youth Nationals which was held in June in Kerala haven’t received their prize money too.
The Indian Express reached out to SD Mudgil, who’s part of the CoA, but there was no reply on the matter.
