In what can be called a moral victory for India's efforts to convince the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to shift the Davis Cup tie against Pakistan to a neutral venue, the world body has now agreed to discuss this hot topic soon in London.
In what can be called a moral victory for India's efforts to convince the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to shift the Davis Cup tie against Pakistan to a neutral venue, the world body has now agreed to discuss this hot topic soon in London.
DNA has reliably learnt that the Davis Cup Committee, the highest decision-making body of ITF in matters related to Davis Cup, will most likely meet in London to take a final decision on All India Tennis Association's (AITA) request to either shift the tie to a neutral venue or postpone it till the security issues are resolved.
That was the prime reason why, for the second time in as many days, a teleconference between ITF officials and the AITA secretary along with non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi regarding Asia Oceania Group 1 tie was called off once again on Tuesday.
"The teleconference was cancelled. I just heard from AITA," Bhupathi also confirmed.
It is important to mention here that till a day before, ITF was adamant that "there is no security threat to Indian team", but AITA kept pressing over that it would be impossible for players to tour Islamabad "under present political unrest between the two countries".
India were all set to go to the neighbouring country before relations between the two countries deteriorated further in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir.
It has been reliably learnt that AITA also cited the threat to Indian cricket team, currently touring West Indies, where an email was sent to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) who immediately alerted the International Cricket Council and Board of Control for Cricket in India regarding this. "How can ITF guarantee security of tennis team on its own, when threats are even coming to Indian team outside the sub-continent," stated the AITA communication to ITF.
AITA has also let the world body know that "no player in Indian team is willing to tour Pak at this point of time" and there could well be a scenario where the "boycott remains the only option". And there was a previous instance when India forfeited the Davis Cup final in 1974 in South Africa because of their Apartheid policy.
The Indian team led by Vijay Amritraj then had beaten Japan, Australia and USSR to make it to the title round of the team competition. Of the three occasions that India have so far made it to the Davis Cup finals — the other two being in 1966 vs Australia and in 1987 vs Sweden — that was India's best chance of winning the Cup. But the prevailing political unrest, following 1971 war between the two countries, it was decided at the highest political level to not tour South Africa.
India also faced the similar backlash in 2009 when Australia team led by Lleyton Hewitt did not play in Chennai due to security concerns following 26/11 attacks. The situation then was also called "unsafe" by Aussies clubbed with general elections in India.
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