Maharashtra Carrom Association (MCA) chairman Bharat Desadla met with state sports commissioner Suhas Diwase and Joint Director-Sports Sudhir More in Pune on Wednesday to submit a letter of protest after carrom was recently removed from the list of 38 games that qualify for the Shiv Chhatrapati Award.

Desadla, however, felt that the meeting was a futile exercise. “We told them [government officials] that Maharashtra players have been dominating carrom at the international level. Also, with as many as 50 per cent of Team India’s players are from our state, it’s unfair to give the game step-motherly treatment.