Tennis Players to Boycott Davis Cup
A fresh new trouble is brewing in the Tennis cauldron and Somdev Devvarman serves as the main ingredient. The latest controversy to sweep the Indian sports community hails from the Tennis playing section of our sports and games quota. The nation’s best Tennis stars have made it clear that they will not be available to partake in next month’s Davis Cup against South Korea, unless the All India Tennis Association (AITA) takes into consideration a number of requests from their side. The campaign, spearheaded by Somdev Devvarman, is set to bring about a revolution in the way the Tennis players are treated. The group of players protesting against AITA claims that they remain unified in their stance against the practices of the Davis Cup squad management. Hence the revolutionaries are threatening to boycott Davis Cup unless a slew of their demands are met.
Their so called demands are not without justification. A better management of the Davis Cup prize money, an improvement in the support staff and sparring partners, and an opportunity to be involved in the decision making of venues for ties are some of the points in their list. They have specified that, they have no intention what so ever to challenge the management and authority of the All India Tennis Association, as a preemptive measure to avoid being at loggerheads with the association. Their resentment extends to the captain and the national coach and have expressed that AITA find a replacement for Shiv Misra and Nandan Bal as soon as possible.
One key aspect of the list is the distribution of the prize money, which to date has been shared fifty-fifty between the association and the players. Now the players are insisting that the prize money should be distributed amidst the players after AITA gets back the money spent on the Davis Cup tie expense. Another demand enlists the recruitment of a full physiotherapist for the whole team in question. Last but not least, the last demand in the agenda stresses on the egalitarian treatment of all the members of the squad with respect to logistical arrangements.
This is not the first controversial blot in Somdev Devvaram profile. Last year alone, he was caught up in a scandal of similar proportions when he was finally picked as a partner for Leander Paes to participate in the 2012 London Olympics. Though he was 259th in the world back then, Somdev Devvaram statistics have further improved since.
