NEW DELHI: The All India Tennis Association has given all private academies a July 1 deadline to register with the AITA if they want to be eligible to host age-group tournaments.
The move, accepted by AITA executive committee, means that all unregistered academies will not be able to host tournaments.
AITA came to its decision after receiving numerous complaints of events that were being organised in the most unprofessional manner, and that some venues do not have even basic amenities such as drinking water and separate washrooms for boys and girls, and that there were no basic sitting arrangements for accompanying parents, Deccan Herald reports.
“All this has to stop. We want to create a system that all these academies come under one regulation. We have received a lot of complaints and we want to put an end to this,” AITA secretary general Hironmoy Chatterjee told the daily.
“We are going to provide ratings to the academies. It will make players and parents aware as to where are they heading? Whether it is beneficial for players to be at a certain academy or not,” Chatterjee clarified.
According to DH, hosting tournaments has become a money-minting business for many tournament organisers. It has also been alleged that academies try to exploit the draw by giving easy matches to their own players.
“We will monitor all these things as well. But we have go step by step. Academies with no washroom facilities and filtered drinking water will not be given registration,” said Chatterjee.
Several Indian tennis stars such as Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna, Mahesh Bhupathi, Nandan Bal, Zeeshan Ali and Vishal Uppal run their academies and they will also have to come under the AITA umbrella.
The AITA has set a few parameters to ascertain which academy be given what rating. The assessment will be based upon the number of courts, the number of AITA’s registered players, certified coaches and trainers with the centre.
As per the DH report, any academy with less than five points will be just an AITA recognised academy while academies with 5-10 points will be awarded 1-star rating. Academies with 11-14 points will be awarded a 2-star rating and academies with more than 15 points will be awarded 3-star rating, the highest.
The ratings may be reviewed after a period of 12 months, once a rating has been given, the academy can apply for revised rating only after 12 months of lock-in period. The ratings will be valid for a period of two years from the time they are approved.
AITA will charge Rs 6,000 for recognition, Rs 10,000 for 1-star, Rs 12,000 for 2-star and Rs 15,000 for 3-star rating, DH reports.
