While there was a loud clamour for disciplinary action, AITA and Anil Khanna know that anything they do has no effect as the ATP does not recognise them.
The tennis open air theatre was played out in a thrilling spectacle, hogging prime time TRPs and doing better than Euro 2012.
Three actors, a character artist, and an actress sought by everyone, made up the cast. All the ingredients of a masala movie with a lot of action, stunts and what have you. All it needed was a happy ending but that did not quite happen.
Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Anil Khanna performed the three lead roles. Rohan Bopanna took up the character role. Sania, of course, is the queen whom all the principal actors were seeking. The twist is provided by the inclusion of AITA in the drama. You could see the three principal characters appear on the TV sets from time to time. While Lee, Hesh or their fathers were understandably conspicuous by their presence, one could also see a helpless looking AITA president appear on the TV from time to time, mostly to succumb to one or the other lead player. The question was being asked by the public: is this man speaking on behalf of a governing federation of an Olympic sport of a major country? Or was it just playacting?
Tennis, unlike other sports, is not governed by its International Federation for the major part. There is the ATP tour, run by the Association of Tennis Professionals, which runs the majority tournaments among the men, Women’s Tennis Association, which runs the women’s part of the tour and the International Tennis Federation, which has been left holding the rump and as a compromise formula, is allowed to have a role in the Grand Slam tournaments and Junior circuit besides Multi-country tournaments like the Davis Cup, and Olympics.
While there was a big clamour for disciplinary action, AITA and Anil Khanna know that anything that they do has no effect as the ATP does not recognise it. If a player wants to play a Challenger, a Masters, a tour event or even a Grand Slam, he does not need to be sponsored by its national federation or ITF. Professional players make their living playing ATP tournaments. ITF is not allowed to run a single senior tournament except the four Grand Slams, some Futures and the Junior Circuit, which too accept the ATP rankings as the base for entry and the local body has all the power levers. Where does that leave the ITF and AITA?
Mahesh and Bopanna, or for that matter Paes, actually lose money every time they come and represent the country. How many top players play the Davis Cup? Not many know that the national federations have to go down on their knees to make the top players play for them in Davis Cup or for that matter, even Olympics. Those who do not understand this power equation will berate the federations for getting blackmailed but the power equation in the tennis world simply dictates this kind of a scenario. As long as India did not have a phalanx of these top notchers in the ATP circuit, they could not flex their muscles, but now they can. Matters get further complicated if you have a body as inept and indifferent as the AITA.
It is a family affair in AITA, and is run like a closely held private limited company, with so many skeletons in their cupboard. Naturally even their moral authority on the players is weak. Combine it with the power equation prevalent in the tennis world and you have the perfect recipe for a helpless AITA cajoling one or the other player every second day. And watch out, the lady has not even spoken yet!
–The writer is a principal secretary in the Rajasthan Government and a former president of Rajasthan Cricket Association. Follow him on Twitter: @Sanjay_Dixit. The views expressed are personal
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