IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY

NEVER SO BAD
When Ramesh started finding his feet in the big league, Ramanathan was not in agreement with the way Vijay Amritraj, by then the Davis Cup captain, treated his son. There was a sustained battle between the two families, as a result, but never in history have things become so ugly as in the last week when Bhupathi, Vijay’s son Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna shot off an email to AITA saying they would not play for India if Paes was retained as skipper.
“Krishnan and Amritraj did have problems with each other, but the country comes before any personality clash, and they both realised that,” says former Davis Cupper Akhtar Ali, whose son Zeeshan also represented India.
“Personal opinions don’t matter in a team sport. Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar couldn’t stand each other, but that’s not what was important. When Amritraj dropped Krishnan in favour of Shashi Menon for a tie, nobody ever said they won’t play for the country again. Bhupathi had said before that he won’t play the zonal Davis Cup ties, Bopanna made himself unavailable for a tie last year, but nobody really made a big deal about it. When Sania says she won’t play in India, such a big hue and cry was made. But even she didn’t say she won’t play for the country like these players did.”

WHAT HAPPENED NOW?
“Unprofessional” — that was what captain Leander Paes branded Prakash after dropping him for day one of the Uzbekistan tie. A mud-slinging match began, this time in the open, with viewers watching the competition as keenly as they would if it was a classic fifth rubber. Bhupathi says the AITA leaked the letter to the media, the AITA refuses to comment, and numerous speculations abound.
The tussle threatens to crack the establishment down the middle. The divided camps are on the edge, and once they fall through the gaping chasm, only one loser will be revealed — Indian tennis. Especially at a time when the players in question are not ranked consistently in the top-50 as Vijay and Ramesh were, but are lurking somewhere in the 200s.
There has been some tension as far as Paes and Davis Cup is concerned. But nothing was brought out into the open so vocally, not even when he had questioned Bhupathi’s commitment during the Asian Games in Doha in 2006. What is so significant this time around? Could it be because the player involved answered to the name Amritraj?
Akhtar Ali agrees. “When Prakash was dropped for the first tie, that’s when the trouble started,” he says. “If they had problems with Leander earlier, why didn’t they say so? This time it was Prakash who was dropped, and Vijay must not have been too happy about that.”
It’s true that the e-mail which started it all could have been shot off in the past. Paes has been alleged to have undermined player confidence several times before. But the voice of dissent grew louder with the strength of Amritraj senior behind it, and now, reinforcement has arrived in the form of Bhupathi. In the mess that it has become, it’s not clear whose fight this really is.

MAHESH’S BOYS?
Leander’s record while playing for the country has been harped upon, but when it comes to man management, he has always walked two steps behind Bhupathi. This is reflected in the success of his company Globosport in contrast to the fading away of Leander’s Paes-en-Sport. Charges of rubbing his players the wrong way are a frequent occurrence for Paes, and the alleging camp usually has Bhupathi putting an arm around its shoulder. Bopanna, who was training at the CGK Bhupathi tennis village, was not played for the 2002 Davis Cup tie against a weak Lebanon side, with Paes picking Harsh Mankad instead. This time, it’s Prakash who has accused Paes of “butchering” him, and one of the parties who signed the letter of revolt is Bhupathi himself.
“The new crop is coming up, and the old is gradually fading away. Differences arise,” says Sumant Misra, another Davis Cup veteran and Ramanathan’s contemporary. “When I was playing, there were some issues within the team, but nothing like this. Human nature is such that strong personalities will clash and people will get carried away. We played most of our ties away from home, and it’s not like the press were following us around. Even if there were occasional tensions, they did not get reported like it is happening now,” he adds.
“At the end of the day, it is the captain who has to decide whether a player is fit or not. In this case also — If you have a stomach upset — then it’s the captain’s decision whether you should play or not. Paes has created a reputation in fighting for the country, and for these players to come out and say what they did is jumping the gun. How can they say they won’t play under the captain? Can any cricketer say we won’t play under Dhoni? The AITA should pick a captain and say, keep out if you want.”

COUNTER ARGUMENT
While Ramanathan prefers to keep away from the current controversy, Jaidip Mukerjea, who recently revealed his own issues with Paes, insists there can be no smoke without fire. “This is the first time in the history of Indian sport that something like this has happened. The boys must have had some serious problems for it to come to this,” he says.
“I was captain from ‘94 to ‘99 and we had great results. It was I who made Leander and Mahesh play together. But then Leander told AITA that he didn’t want me as captain. I told RK Khanna (then AITA chief) that I know about what he had said, and I wanted to put in my papers. There is no doubt that Leander is a great player, but Rohan and Prakash are the future. The captain has to protect his team — he shouldn’t have announced to the media the things he said about Prakash. Look at Doha, and what Leander said then about Mahesh. He keeps making statements that he should not.”
The disgruntled bunch insists they have no trouble with Paes as a player, it’s just his captaincy that bothers them. And though the AITA has decided to stick with Paes for the Japan tie, it isn’t like his removal from captaincy will be the end of all trouble. The past misgivings will not be erased by assigning Paes a player’s role. The tension will continue to prevail. The AITA has deferred a clear decision till the Olympics, but the current standoff threatens to swallow everything in its wake, including the Leander-Mahesh swansong this year’s Olympic Games were supposed to be.
Whoever wins this battle, the war has already been lost.