A disagreement over a bat sparked a dispute that led to a girl being kicked out of New Zealand's national table tennis team.

A table tennis coach made one of the sport's rising star's cry after a disagreement over which bat she should use, sparking a spat which later saw the girl removed from the national team.

The 12-year-old prodigy was kicked out of the squad after her family refused to help pay for the coach to attend a international tournament with the girl because of the disagreement.

The Sports Tribunal found the decision, by Table Tennis New Zealand (TTNZ), was unfair and ordered the association to reinstate the girl.

Table Tennis New Zealand must also pay $2000 towards the family's legal costs.

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The saga began in February last year after the girl was selected to represent New Zealand at the Oceania Junior Table Tennis Championships in Tonga.

When the girl's grandmother found out a woman called Amy, not her real name, had been selected to coach the team, she told TTNZ's high performance convenor Amy had upset both her and her granddaughter during a tournament in 2017.

She said Amy had taken issue with the "pimpled" bat her granddaughter had chosen to play with and told her she should use a sponge bat instead. The girl's own coach had been happy with her choice of bat.

The exchange left the girl, who was aged 10 at the time, in tears. Her mother and grandmother were also upset.

After the incident, the girl felt uncomfortable around Amy and tried to avoid her.

After the grandmother raised her concerns, the convenor suggested Amy meet the girl and her mother and grandmother to try to resolve the matter. But the meeting never went ahead.

Meanwhile, the grandmother refused to pay a contribution towards Amy's travel costs, as was required by all team members under TTNZ policy.

Despite TTNZ's executive director informing the grandmother her granddaughter would lose her spot if the deposit was not paid in five days, she refused to back down.

True to its word, TTNZ removed the girl from the team and replaced her with another player.

The grandmother claimed that was unfair because her granddaughter had earned her spot through merit.

As a gesture of good faith, she offered to pay a $500 travel cost deposit into the trust account of a lawyer selected by TTNZ. But the chairman said it was too late.

The grandmother appealed TTNZ's decision to the Sports Tribunal, which found TTNZ had failed to follow a fair process in dealing with the dispute.

The tribunal said the player's spot on the team should be reinstated.

While it was regrettable the replacement player would be removed from the team, it was "the right thing to do", the judgement stated.