NEW DELHI: The All India Tennis Association has announced a 9-member “second string” squad for next month’s Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-I tie to be held in Islamabad on November 29-30 after the top stars, led by non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi, refused to travel to Pakistan.
The AITA sent a revised list to the Pakistan Tennis Federation on Thursday for the start of the visa process, News18 reports.
The Davis Cup tie against Pakistan is scheduled to take place at the grass courts of the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad.
Leading the team as non-playing captain will be Leander Paes, who incidentally had been cold shouldered by his “arch enemy” Bhupathi as far as Davis Cup duties were concerned.
Saketh Sai Myneni, Suresh Kumar Manish, Rawat Sidharth, Arjun Jayant Kadhe, Sri Ram Balaji and Sasikumar Mukund and will be accompanied by manager Sunder Narayan Iyer, coach Syed Zeeshan Ali and physio Anand Kumar. Myneni’s wife Sri Lakshmi Anumolu will also be accompanying the team.
The likes of Rohan Bopanna, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan, who were earlier named on the squad sheet, do not find mention in the list sent to Pakistan.
Bopanna’s case is particularly ironic as he had at one time formed part of a very successful and celebrated doubles pairing with Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi on the international tennis circuit that was dubbed the Indo-Pak Express.
While AITA were expecting Bopanna and Ramkumar to turn out for India, Gunneswaran had already excused himself owing to his marriage being fixed for November 29.
The tie was earlier scheduled to be held in Islamabad on September 14-15 but was postponed to November after an in-depth security review by the International Tennis Federation.
The ITF’s Davis Cup committee had on August 22 decided to postpone the tie from the earlier scheduled dates of September 14 and 15 following persistent pleas by India to either shift the tie to a neutral venue or postpone it given the currently high diplomatic tension between the two countries.
The ITF had seen merit in AITA’s plea that the tie be postponed as it took into consideration the after effects of the Union government’s decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
“We are waiting for a final decision from the ITF and accordingly will take a call but as of now we have to start the visa process,” AITA secretary general Hironmoy Chatterjee had earlier told PTI.
AITA’s decision to send in the names to the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) for visa formalities had less to do with a desire to play their arch rivals and more to do with avoiding a likely suspension from ITF of one or two years and relegation to Asia/Oceania Group III.
“Ever since the ITF committee changed the dates of the tie, we kept reminding India to provide details of their team. When they did not, as a last resort we approached the ITF committee and today India provided us the details,” Pakistan Tennis Federation president Salim Saifullah Khan told Pakistani daily The News.
Saifullah has directed the PTF officials to hasten the visa process. “We have started visa seeking process immediately. When it comes to getting a visa for an Indian national, everyone knows the process is lengthy. Still, we will do all we can to complete everything in time,” he said.
