Former skipper Anand Amritraj finds it “ridiculous” that top Indian players have not turned up to represent India at the Davis Cup, saying that money or any other reason should not be a factor when it comes to playing for the country. India are taking on Togo from Saturday but best-ranked singles player Sumit Nagal and Yuki Bhambri, who is now the country’s best doubles player, did not make themselves available for the World Group I play-off.
Anand, who captained India for five years and enjoyed reasonable success, said for his generation playing for the flag was a different emotion altogether.
“To me, to Vijay, to Ramesh, it was a huge honour to play for the country. Whether you got paid or not, we didn’t get paid. We were just doing it because we enjoyed playing Davis Cup. It was the highlight of our year whether we played South Club in Calcutta, DLTA in Delhi or any place in Chennai or Pune where we played some matches,” Amritraj told PTI in an interview.
“I just don’t understand. You got the other 50 weeks in the year to make money. Especially the money that is involved now is 100 times what we used to get paid.
“It’s ridiculous that people would not play for whatever reason. No matter what, no matter who’s in the federation, no matter who’s captain or whatever, you should definitely play for the country. If you’re good enough (injury-free), you should play. To me, it’s as simple as that.” After a long time, India have got a home tie and a reasonably easy one as Togo do not have formidable players. Their best is not even ranked top-1000. This has sparked a debate about whether India could have experimented by playing youngsters.
Anand, though, said India should always play their best players.
“I honestly feel that we should play the best team possible only because if we win 3-0 then the kids can play. The next generation can play. But I think we should get this match out of the way.
“They (Togo) can’t be too bad, in my opinion. If they beat Latvia and Indonesia and Indonesia has always been reasonably good. I think we should play our best team which is these two boys, Ram and Sasikumar.
“You really don’t want to take any chances or have any regrets later in case somebody gets injured, something happens. In tennis anything can happen. So I think you should definitely play your best team.” Asked if he was aware about the petition filed by Somdev Devvarman and Purav Raja, seeking appointment of an administrator to run AITA, Anand said he did not have much details but was disappointed with the state of Indian tennis. “It really is a mess. There’s always been politics in Indian tennis. That’s part of the problem. It has to be people who genuinely love the game, want to see it get better.” Anand also find it surprising that Sasikumar Mukund and Ramkumar Ramanathan have not been able to crack top-100 as yet.
“I can’t see why our boys don’t. I can understand it with injuries and stuff like that. But other than that, watching the two boys play, our two top players, Sasikumar and Ramkumar, I’m surprised that they’re both not in the top 100, 150. They have the game for it.” “To some extent, there’s some little piece there that’s missing. One is movement. And second is mental. Playing the 30-40, 40-30, break points.
At this level, it comes down to a couple of points. That’s all it does. ” So what should they do? “First, don’t get injured. Number one thing is, you should be able to play 25-30 weeks of the year, solidly, without getting injured.
“It is really a shame that a country like ours, where we’ve had all the greats, from Krishnan to Jaydeep Premjit, then to Vijay and me and Ramesh, and downwards from there, that we’ve gone in the wrong direction.
“We’ve gone in the wrong direction, unfortunately, which is tragic. It’s like Sweden, they’re suffering the same thing. They see Norway, Denmark and Finland having top players, and they don’t have it, which is a shame. And for us, it’s a huge shame. I don’t understand why.” India have also been struggling to put a decent, robust tournament structure in place. It lost the only ATP250 event and if Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Karnataka are left out, no other state is hosting a Challenger-level tournament. “My take on it is the fact that instead of having 10 Challengers, if you can get a 250 and five Challengers, I think you’re better off. A mix of both. Only because, a 250 raises the profile of the game, the country gives something to aspire to.” India have six top-100 players and another four between 100-150.
Anand said it’s the singles game that matters.
“That is the number one priority. But it’s sad, how far we’ve fallen in the last even 20 years. I mean, Rohan has played doubles for the last 10 years before that Leander and Mahesh.
“But, in my opinion, doubles is, by the way, it’s something that you play for fun and for money. Tennis is a one-on-one sport.”
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