NEW DELHI, JULY 28: The All India Tennis Association's tournaments-for-votes concept could seem a novel way to get a foot-hold into its decision-making circle. State associations, normally dormant at any time of the year, might well wake up and try their hand at conducting tournaments, particularly international ones like the Futures, Satellites and the WTA events.The proposed amendments, coming up at the extraordinary general meeting of the AITA on August 8 at Agra, seek to increase the number of votes in proportion to the number of tournaments conducted by each state association. In short, the national body has swiftly shifted the onus of conducting tournaments to the state associations.The International Tennis Federation (ITF) also operates along these lines where the countries conducting the four Grand Slams have more votes (12) than other countries. India is among the top 10 countries, vote-wise, with 9 votes.The grading process according to the status of the tournament notwithstanding, thestate associations will have to raise the balance amount after the subsidy provided by the AITA for international tournaments. The national association, meanwhile, gets the subsidy amount from ITF.But, in these recession-ridden times, it would be interesting to see how the state associations, not exactly rolling in money, raise the funds to conduct tournaments like Satellites or Futures. Moreover, the number of votes for a state will be decided on the average of the previous four years, and not one particular year. That also means that any state, which harbours hopes of making a serious bid for the national association, would have to consistently hold tournaments and also ensure that there is steady supply of funds to keep them alive.At the moment, every vote of a full member organisation counts as five and voting rights gained by conducting tournaments will be over and above this. The motive behind this amendment seems to be the growing realisation within the AITA that it's time to shed the old conceptof administration and inject liberal doses of corporatisation into running the game in the country.Earlier, only few state associations were conducting the majority of the tournaments, while some had a relatively tournament-free time for a while. The state associations, it is learnt, have been unanimous in accepting the proposal but the question is how many associations will really take the trouble of raising funds for tournaments.The AITA's idea of evenly spreading the tournaments to all state associations sounds interesting, particularly with the voting bit thrown in, but it would also call for drastic change in mindset that the associations are known for. The whiff of power that votes bring in might just spur them to shed as many cobwebs as possible.PROPOSED ADDITIONS/AMENDMENTSUS$5000/Rs 300,000 or more - additional one voteUS$10,000/ Rs 600,000 or more - additional two votesUS$25,000/ Rs 15,00,000 or more - additional three votesUS$50,000/ Rs 30,00,000 or more- additional four votesUS$75,000/ Rs 50,00,000 or more - additional five votesDavis Cup (Zonal): 1 voteDavis Cup (World Group): 2 votesFed Cup Zonal: 1 voteFed Cup World Group: 2 votesITF Juniors (Mini Jr/Sub Jr/Junior) Nationals: 1 voteSenior Nationals: 3 votes
