Jaideep Mukherjee: Mahesh Bhupathi has been treated badly
Former Indian Davis Cup Captain – Jaideep Mukherjee recently spoke about the Davis Cup fiasco, showing his criticism with the way the All India Tennis Association has selected the national team for its Davis Cup match against Pakistan.
To make things worse, the AITA had unceremoniously removed non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi from the team after he refused to travel to Pakistan citing security concerns.
“I think Bhupathi was badly treated. They should have asked him to leave earlier itself, could have been communicated properly. It leaves a bad taste for Indian tennis,” Mukerjee said.
“AITA has done what it thought was best. Safety and security for our players is a big issue. But what baffled me [was] the way AITA handled stars like Paes and Bhupathi. They could have handled this in a better way. I’ve observed that when Paes gets selected, Bhupathi is left out and vice-versa. This has been happening for last 10-15 years. This is not good for Indian tennis,” the 77-year-old further added.
Mukherjee addressed this issue on the cusp of the Premjit Lall Invitational Tennis Tournament. This tournament will have Rs 5.7 lakh prize purse and will take place from December 5-8 where former India No 1 Somdev Devvarman will be seen in action for the first time since 2017.
Mahesh Bhupathi also criticised the way AITA managed this entire case, saying that, “Even when I went to New Delhi on October 15 for the AITA meeting, I was the captain. I guess the AITA has always liked to divide and rule so the easiest thing was to cut the head of the leader.”
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/37xg5W7
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