Guwahati, Jan. 1: The Assam table tennis team, which has a glorious past, today seems to be in the news all for the wrong reasons, with the cadet girls' team suspended for age fudging at the recent 76th Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships at Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh.

Despite the team ensuring a place in the quarter-finals after beating Maharashtra B 3-1 in the pre quarter-finals, Trisha Gogoi, who won both her singles before teaming up with Abrita Bhuyan to clinch the doubles, was penalised for submitting two different birth certificates with the Table Tennis Federation of India.

'As a policy decision and as per our guidelines, she has to be instantly penalised. That's what we have done in this case. Because this is tantamount to cheating, we have scratched the Assam team,' competition manager Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer has stated in the TTFI website.

This is the second time Assam has been shamed in two years.

Golaghat boy Shankalp Gautam Baruah was disqualified last year for fudging his age in the ONGC Cadet and Sub-Junior National Table Tennis Championships at Ajmer and suspended for two years. Baruah, who is serving the term, has, however, been allowed to participate in the state ranking and inter-district tournaments.

Assam Table Tennis Association joint secretary, Curfew Roy said, 'Things have been different after the CBI's intervention for dealing with alleged participation of players in underage categories. The federation has already informed the affiliated state units that birth certificates as well as hospital discharge letters should be submitted within one year.'

'Owing to all these reasons, there must have been some issues although I am yet to be aware about the whole thing as I was out of station for a while,' he said.

'The thing with Trisha was that she submitted two birth certificates and the competition manager came to know, so the team was banned from participating. As everyone knows, the ATTA is least bothered about keeping the Assam flag flying high. She is a very good player and the ATTA officials should have asked her about all these things beforehand. If this had not happened they would have won a medal,' an ATTA insider said.

Former state champion and table tennis secretary of Guwahati Sports Association Mukul Boro lashed out at ATTA's lackadaisical approach.

'They had time to rectify and they should have ensured that double certificates are not being submitted. Today, everything has become digital, which makes the task even simpler. I have also observed that they send players selectively for medical tests to determine age,' said Boro.