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Journalism of Courage
The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) is set to appeal against the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) decision to shift the upcoming Pakistan-India Davis Cup tie out of Islamabad.
“We have a right to appeal to the ITF on the decision. That’s what we are going to do right now,” says Pakistan’s Davis Cup spearhead Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. “The Pakistan Tennis Federation is going to appeal against the decision. Let’s see what the ITF has to do, hopefully they will reconsider the decision. We are going to wait for that first.”
The PTF is expected to meet on Wednesday and make the appeal against the international body. Interestingly, while India’s top players and regular non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi had refused to play the tie if it was held in Islamabad, Pakistan’s star players Qureshi and Aqeel Khan have maintained that they will be unavailable should the tie be played outside Pakistan.
‘India politicising the event’
The PTF, meanwhile, has slammed their Indian counterparts for politicising the Group 1 Asia/Oceania clash. “India has only politicised a sports event,” PTF President Salim Saifullah Khan told PTI. “From what I have heard the AITA was prepared to send its team to Islamabad but did not get clearance from their government. So I classify it as politics.”
Qureshi writes | ‘Disgraceful, wrong, unfair’
The tie was originally scheduled to take place in September, but after the downgrading of relations between the two countries after the Kashmir issue in August, the AITA, at the behest of the players, appealed to the ITF to either shift the tie to a neutral venue or delay it by two months. The ITF went ahead and rescheduled the tie to November, but after the AITA made another appeal for a neutral venue, the ITF again granted the request.
“As per the Davis Cup Regulations, the Pakistan Tennis Federation now has the choice to nominate a neutral venue and has five working days to confirm their proposed venue,” the ITF had said in a statement. “The venue will be announced once the choice has been submitted and approved.”
