Sania Mirza adds her voice to the noise. The injured party is Indian tennis,not womanhood It is just 24 years since tennis returned to the official Olympics programme and never before have the players looked this eager,the lineups so stacked with talent. For one,tennis at London 2012 will be played on the sacred rye grass of the All England Club. Then,tennis players have slowly grasped the greatness of the Games ever since Steffi Graf,Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal made much about their career Golden Slam. Cherry-picking the players has been a fraught process in many countries Frances No. 1 player Marion Bartoli has to settle for grass in her garden rather than the lawns of London; Russias overwhelming talent will see three Top 50 players,including Svetlana Kuznetsova,sitting it out. But nowhere has the selection been as acrimonious as in India. Now,after Mahesh Bhupathi,Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna harangued AITA and got the partners they demanded,Sania Mirza,who has got a wild card entry to womens doubles,adds her voice to the noise. Mirza,in her letter to everyone,complains that she has been used as a bait to get Paes to partner the player he did not want Vishnu Vardhan. She graciously points out to Paes that Vardhan has indeed won a silver at the Asiad. While Mirza has been a witness to the give-and-take officiated by a weak-kneed AITA,which could not find the will to implement the decision of its own selection committee,Mirzas argument that this is a blatant humiliation of Indian womanhood is a lob that looks grandiose at first but pitches way outside the line. Sports federations have been accused of and have been guilty of gender discrimination. BCCIs working committee,for one,has no woman on it. But this spot of bother in tennis reveals AITAs self-inflicted injury to its credibility,the arbitrariness of its selection process,rather than blisters on Indian womanhood. Players and officials have been quick to feign hurt,but the injured party,on all counts,has been Indian tennis.
