Tennis: Govt cannot be put at fault for not doing enough: Bhupathi

Veteran tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi today said Government cannot be faulted for not putting enough money into sports as it had other priorities and corporates and private bodies should fill in the gap.
“Government has different priorities and sports definitely does not come on top. The Government still has to worry about large percentage of villages that are without electricity. We cannot really put them to fault for not putting too much money,” Bhupathi told reporters here.

He felt corporates could promote and support budding talent in various sports disciplines including tennis.

Bhupathi was here to search for young talent for the second batch of Mission 2018 Challenge which is a quest by a corporate to develop Indian Singles Grand Slam champion by that year promising to pump in Rs 100 crore over the next ten years for this. The tennis player is the consultant of the project.

Asked if certain concerns of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), the apex organisation of the game, with regards to the project in the past had been settled, Bhupathi said, “we had a joint meeting with AITA officials at Bangalore yesterday. We told them that we are here to spot talent and create depth in the Indian tennis over the years to come.” “They are the Federation. We are not here to bully them or get bullied,” he said in response to a question.

He, however, did not disclose how much was being spent on the development of tennis by the corporate. Bhupathi’s tennis village in Bangalore is where the company has arranged for the training of budding tennis players.

The AITA had earlier requested the corporate to make public their spending on the development of tennis excluding money spent on the advertisements.

Mission 2018

If that sounded to you like space mission, I wouldnt be surprised. In a notable venture, Apollo Tyres has launched Mission 2018 to encourage Tennis players across India. The idea is to have a Grand Slam Winner by then. Keeping that as the goal in mind Apollo Tyres has set aside 100 Crores over the next one year for this project.

Mahesh Bhupati’s Company Globosport will train the selected 15 and give them international exposure. It goes without saying that Apollo Tyres will use this as a way of promoting themselves. It already has raised hackles with the AITA, which has slammed Apollo Tyres for making tall claims. Whether the company is correct in making this tall claims or if AITA is wrong in making an issue of this, no one can be sure. All we know is 15 kids have been selected by Mission 2018. You can find the list of kids who have been selected here .

The batch of 2008 as they have been called are

Rohan Mehra, age 6 — the youngest child in the entire group. Resident of Delhi. Studies in Kindergarten, Delhi Public School, East of Kailash

Jennifer Luikham, age 8. Resident of Delhi. Studies in Class III, Heritage School

Nandini Das, age 8. Resident of Navi Mumbai. Studies in Class III, Father Agnel School

Romil Kamdar, age 9. Resident of Mumbai. Studies in Class IV, P G Garodia School

Sumit Nagal, age 10. Resident of Nangloi. Studies in Class VI, RKPV Paschim Vihar

Sneha Reddy, age 10. Resident of Mumbai. Studies in Class VI, Raj Hans Vidyalaya

Seulee Upadhayaya, age 11. Resident of Paradeep. Studies in Class VI, Bethany Convent School

Simran Kaur Sethi, age 11. Resident of Delhi. Studies in Class VI, DPS R K Puram

Rohan Bhatia, age 12. Resident of Nasik. Studies in Class VIII, Frabashi International School

Mohammad Azhar, age 12. Resident of Kolkata and selected from the Kolkata camp. Studies in Class V, Safee Hall School

Dhruti Venugopal, age 10. Resident of Mysore. Studies in Class VI, Ideal Java Rotary School.

Spoorti Shivalingiah, age 12. Resident of Bangalore. Studies in Class VII, Delhi Public School.

Sansita Nandakumar, age 12. Resident of Koentour. Studies in Class VII, Vidya Niketan School.

Sheikh Abdullah, age 12. Resident of Hyderabad

Saurabh Singh, age 14. Resident of Delhi. Studies in Kendriya Vidyalaya, R K Puram

However AITA has shot of a letter to Apollo about Mission 2018 claiming it to be hyping up the program. And Apollo has reponded back in full force . Here is what Hindustan Times had to say about the controversy.

Apollo has even released a PDF doc about the program as such. Here is where you can find it

Indian Tennis– What next in the Play offs

Its been a long time since India has been in the World Group of the Davis Cup. India has a chance of making it to the final round of the Davis Cup only if they play well in the play offs. But looking at the way the team is performing I am sure they wouldnt cross the first hurdle. I am not taking away credit from them for their victories. But its been ages since India last entered the World Group of Davis Cup , to be precise nearly 10 years now. The last time they entered the World Group was in 1998 and they lost to Italy 4-1. Italy went on to play in the finals of the Davis Cup, but ended as runners up to Sweden.

I can only cry at the plunge Indian Tennis has taken in the last ten years or so. While players like Lee and Hesh have done themselves a world of good in Doubles Tennis, our performance has been at the best mediocre in the Davis Cups..

Lets to cheer to our Tennis players for making it to the Playoffs.. I wish they play well and go on into the World Group and maybe the finals of Davis Cup…