China's Zhang Jike hits a return during the men's final match at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in Tokyo, May 5, 2014. (Photo : REUTERS)
Table tennis Olympian Zhang Jike and his table tennis club, Shandong Luneng, were both fined 50,000 yuan ($8,055) after Zhang failed to show up for the ninth round of the match at the China Table Tennis Super League (CTTSL) on Saturday and for the club’s failure to notify in advance the Table Tennis and Badminton Centre, the league’s management body.
This is not the first time for Zhang, who is currently embroiled in a dispute with Shandong Luneng over unpaid bonuses, to be absent from a game during this year's CTTSL. On June 9, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist failed to show up for the sixth round of the game due to a waist injury, although that time the club did notify the organization committee in advance.
"Zhang Jike was absent because Luneng club didn't arrange for him to play this game," Liu Xiaonong, director of the organizing committee of the CTTSL and the Table Tennis and Badminton Centre, told the press on Monday. "The club and coach will decide which game the player will play based upon the physical and technical conditions of the player, so we don't think Zhang's absence was because he went on strike."
According to the regulations of the CTTSL, in the event that a high level player does not appear at a match due to serious injuries or illness, the organizing committee should be notified in advance with a written report. Otherwise, both the club and the player will be fined.
Zhang told Chinese media that his absence is due to the fact that he doesn't have a contract with Shandong Luneng, and is therefore not paid for any of his matches since the start of the league.
In response to Zhang's accusations, insiders at the club said that Zhang's previous absences from his injuries had gained the ire of top-level managers, who believe Zhang didn't play his best for the club and were waiting to see a better performance from him before finalizing the contract, the CRIEnglish media portal said in a report on Tuesday.
According to the Table Tennis and Badminton Centre, Zhang and Shandong Luneng have signed an "incomplete" contract that only specifies the basic salary and performance-based bonuses.
For professional players like Zhang, a contract would entail a 500, yuan basic salary, with 45,000 yuan for a win and 10,000 yuan for a loss, meaning that the club owes Zhang at least 255,000 yuan in salary and bonuses, according to calculations made by Tencent Sports.
Zhang was diagnosed with lumbar sacral fracture before the start of the CTTSL for this year, with photos of him lying on a massage bed while listening to the final rally of the Chinese national team at the World Table Tennis Championships in May circulating online. He was also unable to attend the open tournaments in Japan and South Korea in June and July, affecting his ranking for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and turned down a commercial event in Beijing just three days before his absence from the ninth round of CTTSL.
