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Davis Cup tie in Pakistan: AITA-ITF teleconference rescheduled for today

AITA had written to the ITF last week regarding the possibility of postponing the tie. It was only when the ITF showed no intent in this regard that AITA pressed for a neutral venue.

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Mahesh Bhupathi, non-playing captain
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The teleconference scheduled between the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Monday regarding shifting the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group 1 tie out of Pakistan to a neutral venue has now been postponed to Tuesday.

The call has now been rescheduled for 7pm on Tuesday and India Davis Cup non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi and AITA secretary general Hironmoy Chatterjee will be part of the conference call. They will hope to convince the ITF that "a neutral venue would be the best option as travel to Islamabad is virtually not possible under present political unrest between the two countries".

AITA had written to the ITF last week regarding the possibility of postponing the tie. It was only when the ITF showed no intent in this regard that AITA pressed for a neutral venue.

"We will request the ITF to have the tie on a neutral venue so that both the teams are comfortable. There is a Davis Cup rule that if there is political unrest, the tie be postponed or played in a neutral place," said the AITA secretary.

The Indian players, on the other hand, are of the opinion that "the ground situation in Pakistan is such that no sporting team would want to travel at this point of time".

But there's also a scenario that the Indian Davis Cup team will face relegation to the Asia Oceania Group 2 zone apart from facing other sanctions if it boycotts the tie.

An AITA official told DNA that the players as well as association have deliberated all the options before taking such a firm stand.

"There has been an example when India boycotted a Davis Cup tie in 1974 against South Africa's apartheid policies. And don't forget that it was a golden chance for our team to lift the Davis Cup then," said an AITA official.

South Africa defeated Italy while India defeated the Soviet Union in the semifinals in 1974 Davis Cup ties. The team was led by Vijay and Anand Amritraj back then.

India refused to travel to South Africa and forfeited the tie, thus handing over the coveted trophy to them. This had come after weeks of speculation that a compromise might be reached to play at a neutral venue. Even then, there was political unrest after the 1971 war that was the main cause put before the world tennis federation, with the government of India was backing it.

This time around, India were all set to visit Pakistan before relations between the two countries deteriorated further in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir. The only difference now is that despite the escalating tension, the sports ministry made it clear that "it won't interfere since it is not a bilateral series".

Plus, it was ITF's own security agency that ruled Pakistan a safe place to hold the mid-September tie before the developments. For the record, no Indian Davis Cup team has travelled to Pakistan since 1964 and bilateral cricket ties between the two countries have been suspended since the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai.

On the other hand, the Pakistan Davis Cup team has played four of the five home ties since 2017 in Islamabad only, hosting Korea, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Iran. In April 2017, Hong Kong team gave a walkover to Pakistan due to security reasons.

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