Pakistan Cuts India’s Coverage in Junior Davis Cup And Fed Cup

The International tennis events, Junior Davis Cup and Fed Cup were scheduled to be held in India in the month of April. However, unfortunately, the nation has lost its hosting rights since the closure of Pakistan’s air space. In the World Cup of tennis, there were 16 teams who were travelling to India for the Under-16 Davis Cup. The escalating friction between both the neighbouring countries, the Pulwama terror attack and followed by India retaliating with an air strike, resulted in the closure of Pakistan’s air space.

The matches were supposed to take place at the DLTA complex from April 8-13. And the Fed Cup matches were to be held from April 15-20. Now the international tennis events are scheduled to take place in Bangkok, Thailand. The reports given to Pakistan’s political party state that, “Pakistan’s air space was locked down at that time and airports (in India) were also on high alert. No one knew for how long the uncertain situation will prevail. So, a consensus emerged that it’s best to shift the venue and India could host tournaments in future.”

“Since the air space was locked, the flights had to take a detour, which meant an increase in cost and more travel time. For instance, Kazakhstan would have taken three-four extra hours to reach New Delhi in the prevailing situation. So there was a discussion among the International Tennis Federation Federation (ITF), hosts All India Tennis Association (AITA), Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) and a few other stakeholders and it was decided that for the time being, it was prudent to shift the venue. It’s not that India is not a secure place but due to the uncertainty caused by the tension between the two neighbours, everyone felt that it’s a fair call to take the tournament somewhere else,” said the reports.

One of the officials stated that AITA has been liberated from the administration shortcomings since it had to plead with the government for the approval of a visa for the Pakistani tennis players. “If the venue was not changed, AITA had to ensure that Pakistan athletes are provided visas. And in the prevailing situation, no one can give that guarantee. So it’s a wise decision by AITA to agree to the arrangement,” the official said.

Also, the Secretary-General Hironmoy Chatterjee also addressed the lack of funds for the tournament.”Raising funds for tennis tournaments is very difficult in this country. We had recently hosted the Davis Cup in Kolkata and now we are short of funds. The government also does not help so we informed the ITF that we can’t host it,” Chatterjee said. “We were hoping to arrange funds at that time. You have to provide hospitality for these events. The stay, food, travel, everything has to be arranged for all players and officials. It’s a lot of money.”