For his daughter’s win, man offers Rs5,000 to umpire

Terms like match fixing, spot fixing and ball tampering have been always associated with cricket, and it won’t be less than a shocker if issues like these are raised at a tennis court. And mind it, in a junior-level tournament.

On Friday, the tennis fraternity in Pune had a common talking point when a chair umpire was offered Rs5,000 by father of one of the players, to judge the match in his child’s favour.

This is perhaps first-of-its-kind incident that took place during girls’ under-16 final of the All India Junior Ranking Tennis at the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) School Tennis court in Balewadi on Friday.

“This is something which is tarnishing the game. We are grateful to the official (Datta Dongre) who brought this to our notice,” said Sunder Iyer, the tournament director while talking to DNA.

“We cannot disclose the names. We will do after appropriate action is taken,” said Iyer.

“It has never happened in the past three edecades since I have been involved with the game in Maharashtra. It is shocking. We (MSLTA) are meeting next month and will take action,” said Iyer.

“We will insist on a very harsh decision against the concerned parent and the player as such kind of attitude is detrimental to the sport and is totally against the principle of sport.

“It is also unfair to the younger players who sweat out for every point. We are grateful to Datta Dongre for his honesty and will be appreciating his conduct at a bigger forum,” he added.

The sponsor of the event Nitin Kotwal awarded Rs1,000 to Datta for his act of and courage.

The umpire filed a written complaint with the tournament supervisor Tanaya Gosavi and the tournament director Sunder Iyer in which he stated, “One of the parents had offered to pay Rs3,000 to give decisions in his daughter’s favour during a final match. This amount was increased to Rs5,000 when the match was stopped for a rain break.”

Taken aback, Dongre, who is also an assistant coach at the MSLTA school of tennis in Balewadi, immediately reported the matter and gave a written complaint to the officials.

“The complaint will be forwarded to the MSLTA and a decision on action will be taken in the MSLTA council meeting,” said Iyer, who is also the treasurer of MSLTA.