Sport - Sports : General

It is a government policy: Misra

NEW DELHI: Prakash Amritraj may be known as an Indian around the world, but not in India, as long as he does not procure an Indian passport, as per the latest guideline of the Union Sports Ministry.

Reacting to the new ruling, the captain of the Indian Davis Cup team, S.P. Misra, said that the choice would obviously be restricted now.

“It is a government policy, and I have nothing to comment on it. However, I can say that instead of rotating three players for the two singles slots depending on the surface etc., our choice is restricted to two at the moment,” said Misra, as he highlighted the disadvantage the Indian team would face, owing to the ineligibility of Prakash to represent the country following the new ruling.

The former Davis Cup team coach, Akhtar Ali, also had nothing to say against the government policy. Akhtar quoted the example of 1974 when the Indian team gave a walkover in the Davis Cup final against South Africa because it was required to do as per the government policy.

“We had a good chance to win the Davis Cup final then. But we had to obey the government policy. It is the same now,” said Akhtar.

It may be interesting to note that the All India Tennis Association (AITA) was ready to give $70,000 per year for Sunitha Rao, about five years ago, if she agreed to play for India in Fed Cup etc. Her father not only wanted $100,000 per year, but also about Rs. five crore, when the whole idea fizzled out.

Much later, Sunitha was only too happy to represent India unconditionally. She played a stupendous doubles second round in the Beijing Olympics with Sania Mirza, against the top-seeded Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.

In the last Asian Games in Doha, Shikha Uberoi played a key role along with Sania Mirza in winning the team silver.

A pillar of strength for Indian tennis over the years, the 10-time Grand Slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi said that it was a “little bizarre” for the government to come up with such a policy that would affect the chances of the Indian Davis Cup team.

“We have a Davis Cup tie coming up soon, and Prakash is our No.1 player on grass at home. It is unfair to him to spring a rule like that. The government has to find a solution so that we have the best team,” said Bhupathi.

The AITA Secretary General, Anil Khanna, may have been disillusioned about the current low international rankings of Shikha and Sunitha, not to mention the revolting acts of Prakash in recent Davis Cup ties, to really be able to muster enthusiasm to fight their case with the government.

“The AITA had replied to the government that we have three players who will be affected by such an order and at the same time AITA would abide by the policy of the government in the larger interest of Indian sport,” said a statement from the AITA Secretary General.

On a more positive note, the statement further says, “the new policy has been discussed and the Honourable Minister of Sports has agreed to have a re-look at the participation rights, if a possibility exists for dual citizenships for players. In case a player is willing to change his passport, he/she will obviously not be in any difficulty in representing India in Davis Cup and Fed Cup, and the government would welcome the same.”

The ball is in the court of the players.

It remains to be seen whether they rush to the passport office or the Supreme Court.

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