‘Sick’ State players just stay on bench

There was something curious about Telangana bench when they took on Delhi women in the 68th senior national basketball championship here at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Thursday. As many as seven players, all in their track suits, sat conspicuously throughout the 40-minute contest while five others sweated it out unchanged for the entire duration.

And predictably, Telangana slumped to their second consecutive defeat. For a team that finished runners-up in the last edition at Puducherry, the result was embarrassing.

So why didn’t seven players, who played key roles in last year’s stupendous show, take the court? “They are all sick and that’s all I can say,” said B. Vishal, Telangana coach.

Apparently, the seven players — Aswathy S. Thambi, M. Gayatri, Kiran Prajapathi, Trittymal Joseph, A. Anjusree, L. Suganya and P. Divya — who are all employed with South Central Railway submitted a letter to Telangana State Basketball Association saying that they be exempted from playing as “they have been sick.”

Coach and players refused to talk about the issue but a Telangana official, requesting anonymity, said that the seven players are boycotting on the “instruction” of their South Central Railway coach D. Anandhi who was supposed to travel with the Telangana team as their manager.

Anandhi was the coach when Telangana reached the final last year. The official said Anandhi was removed from the position recently as a result of ego clash between her and the Association.

“After the team finished runners-up last year, the Association president Rajender Reddy had organised a felicitation function and that’s where the problem started. Anandhi had an argument with the president over issuing certificates for the players who took part in last year’s championship,” the official added.