CALCUTTA (India): The recent Mahesh Bhupathi and All India Tennis Association (AITA) controversy has left a bitter taste in the Indian tennis circles.
Bhupathi and senior players had refused to travel to Pakistan for the Davis Cup tie before the International Tennis Federation (ITF) shifted the tie out of Islamabad to a neutral venue on November 29-30.
However, the AITA came down heavily on Bhupathi, who was removed as team’s non-playing captain.
“AITA has done what it thought was best. Safety and security for our players is a big issue. But what baffled me the way AITA handles stars like Leander Paes and Bhupathi,” former India great Jaideep Mukherjea told Khelupdates.com on Thursday.
The AITA has appointed Rohit Rajpal as India’s non-playing captain at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Chandigarh on Monday.
“I’ve observed that when Paes gets selected, Bhupathi is left out and vice versa. This is not good for Indian tennis,” added the 77-year-old.
Junior players like Saketh Myneni, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Arjun Kadhe, Vijay Sundar Prashanth, Sriram Balaji, Manish Sureshkumar and Sidharth Rawat had expressed their consent to go to Pakistan.
The AITA had also sought the services of Olympic medalist and 18-time Grand Slam champion Paes, who readily agreed.
The tennis federation also said that it would not have been possible to dump the players who had expressed their willingness to play in Pakistan.
The national body also clarified they chose to stick to the pattern of having a non-playing captain rather than put burden on Paes with the task, as he was expected to play.
Bhupathi should’ve been bit more “careful”
Bhupathi, whose tenure as captain began in Bengaluru in April 2017 against Uzbekistan, blasted the AITA on the social media network for the unceremonious exit.
But former India Davis Cup coach Akhtar Ali said Bhupathi should’ve been a bit more “careful with his comments”.
“Mahesh (Bhupathi) should’ve handled the situation sensibly. His comments were unwarranted. He has been a great tennis player, but should’ve been a bit more diplomatic before posting such comments,” said Ali.
In five ties under Bhupathi, India won against Uzbekistan (April, 2017) and China (April, 2018).
During his tenure, India twice reached the World Group Play-offs but lost to Canada (September 2017) and Serbia (September 2018) in tough away ties.
“I’m not favouring anybody here. But Mahesh should’ve had some patience to observe the situation and then made his decision on not touring Pakistan. He should’ve waited for the AITA to take a call before coming out with his own decision,” added Ali.
Even though the Pakistan Tennis Federation has appealed to the ITF against the decision to shift the tie, the AITA will go through the selection process all over again, once the venue and surface for the tie are decided by November 9.
