The defiant members of the Indian Davis cup team, namely Rohan Bopanna, Prakash Amritraj and Mahesh Bhupathi, who joined hands together to displace Indian tennis ace Leander Paes as Davis Cup captain faced a sharp forehand return from the top shots of All India Tennis Association (AITA) as the country’s premier tennis body fully backs Leander ahead of them.
The rebellious members further received a big jolt when AITA Secretary, Anil Khanna clearly stated that Leander will be the first choice for them in place of trio when it comes down to choose between them.
Amritraj along with the other players have threatened to opt out from the forthcoming Japan tie if Paes stays on captain. The present murky situation floated up when Prakash Amritraj wasn’t picked up by Leander Paes for the singles on the opening day against Uzbekistan and makes it further direr after Prakash sealed the tie in India’s favour having clinched the decider.
Paes is certainly most experienced and senior guy amongst all. Amritraj (eight) and Bopanna (nine) together had played 17 matches thus far with the present rankings of 265 and 288 while Leander Paes turned out for India 43 times playing 81 matches for over a long period of eighteen years.
In addition Paes has always stood for his country everytime it needed him while Bopanna and Bhupathi always chosen to play on their own will.
AITA secretary Anil Khanna had a meeting with the federation president Yashwant Sinha to apprise him of the situation on Monday.
According to Khanna, “The federation president is very clear about the honour of Leander Paes due to his immense contribution for the country.”
“Our main aim is to safeguard the honour of the other players also with the priority of India putting up its best challenge against Japan,” Khanna added.
Meanwhile the federation will ask players for their availability for the Japan tie and will also work out some solution to persuade the dissenting players. After this precarious situation, it is appearing more difficult for India to pin-down Japan even with the home advantage.
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