Pitchford, who represents TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, and Drinkhall, who plies his trade with Werder Bremen, will both compete in the Bundesliga play-offs, of which the second legs take place on the opening day of the Commonwealth Championships in New Delhi, on May 5.

The pair will be replaced by youngsters Sam Walker and Chris Doran, who will be given a golden opportunity to push for inclusion to the England squad for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The English Table Tennis Association (ETTA) released a statement on their website, in which they said: "This is clearly disappointing for England and the principle of country before club is something that must be treasured and protected where possible.

"In this case it has not been and is a precedent that the ETTA will work to avoid in future.

"Over the past six months the new performance leadership team, Nick Jarvis and Jon Pett, have visited the German clubs to build stronger relationships for English players and open a dialogue on many subjects, including the issue of club versus country selection.

"Both clubs had been aware of the issue relating to the Commonwealth Championships and had appeared supportive of England, and were going to seek approval to reschedule their play-off fixture to a week earlier; this change would have resulted in no clash and both players availability for India.

"Despite discussions between England and the German clubs it is unfortunate that this issue has not been resolved.

Walker and Doran will be joined alongside 21-year-old Danny Reed, and five-time Commonwealth Games medallist Andrew Baggaley, who brings plenty of experience to a very young English squad.

Promising17-year-old Sam Walker will compete for England at the Commonwealth Championships in Delhi next month

"This is obviously not an ideal situation for England, but in the modern professional world of table tennis issues can arise between country and club; something also witnessed in many other sports." continued the statement.

"As the players' employers the German clubs have contractual control over each player's programmes England have little control at this point in time.

"This is usually avoidable as most International fixtures/events fall outside of club fixtures and as such clashes can be avoided.

"Ultimately the timing of the Commonwealth Championships has impacted on the England team as it clashes directly with the Bundesliga which is far from acceptable but out of the ETTA's hands, with support from either the ETTU or ITTF unavailable."

The statement also launches a stinging attack on the staging of the Commonwealth Championships in India, questioning the need for the event's existence.

"If the event was managed by the ETTU (European Table Tennis Union) or ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) this would simply not happen." it reads.

"The staging of the event in India is ultimately the single biggest reason for the unavailability of English players, and forces England to not send their best team.

"The event takes place within a few days of the World Championships in Paris, requiring players to compete on separate continents in an extremely short space of time; simply put the event in Delhi does not offer the best preparation for a World Championship.

"One must also now question the need for a Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships given the sports consistent inclusion in the Commonwealth Games and Olympics?"

The Commonwealth Championships are due to run from May 5 until 10.

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