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.

Column: Infusion of quality players needed

In a column Naresh Kumar writes that the need of the hour is the Infusion of quality players without the messy politicking that goes on in the associations as well as well as between players and associations. The most memorable one has been the tiff between Mahesh Bhupati and AITA over Mission 2018 by Apollo Tyres. The groupism that is developing in the Indian Tennis Team and the revolt against Paes has only added to the woes of the system.

Pasted below is the complete article. The link to the article

Indian tennis is in a turmoil. The Davis Cup team is in revolt. The rebels — reportedly led by Mahesh Bhupathi/Prakash Amritraj — are trying to sign up Somdev Dev Varman to retain their stranglehold on the Davis Cup team. The All Indian Tennis Association (AITA) is also at loggerheads with Bhupathi over his flamboyant Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 programme, a Rs 100 crore project promising a Grand Slam Champion in ten years!

Furthermore, the AITA has banned private promoters from conducting WTA and ATP tournaments. Happily, the controversy about the selection of coaches for training the team for the Commonwealth Games seems to have died down with the appointment of Jaidip Mukerjea as the chief coach. Quite a plateful.

The turbulence started during the Indo-Japan Davis Cup tie in Delhi in March. In an appalling move, the team wrote to the AITA refusing to play under the captaincy of Leander Paes and listing his failings. The ominous letter was also signed by Karan Rastogi, a Davis Cup prospect not on the team.

Not only was it an effort to oust Paes, but the inclusion of Rastogi made it apparent that it was an effort to ‘hijack’ the team.

With the powerful Bhupathi-Amritraj combine and the forthcoming important pre-World Group tie against Romania, the AITA had little option but to back down. A non-playing captain, S. P. Misra was appointed and Paes ‘voluntarily’ stepped down from the captaincy.

The matter is put away in the cupboard and may be raised again when the next Davis Cup tie in the Asia Oceania Group I comes up in April ’09.

Somdev’s performance in tournaments has now made him a key member of our future Davis Cup tennis. He needs a sponsor badly and understandably he will have to follow his sponsor’s directions. If the AITA can help him and receive his support, the revolt could well peter out and the AITA would be back in the saddle. If not, the ‘rebels’ will retain control of the Davis Cup team.

For some years now WTA and ATP tournaments have been organised by tennis loving promoters and sponsors, at times working with state associations.

The tournaments, held at a total cost of more than Rs 100 crores with almost all the prize money being taken away by foreign players, have done little for Indian tennis. The sole exception was when Sania Mirza won the tournament in Hyderabad. One does not need a consultant to tell you that the absence of a meaningful Indian presence in the events cannot be compensated by glitzy promotional gimmicks with prancing models and Bollywood stars.

Sponsors are not in love with the game. They want adequate return on their money. It is reported that the cancellation of the Bangalore ATP tournament was triggered by the absence of sponsors. The promoters wriggled out of their commitment, citing security apprehensions after the bomb blasts. The excuse outraged AITA, who apprehending loss of face on the international scene, fired a broadside by banning private bodies from conducting WTA or ATP events.

Though the promoters grudgingly pay royalty to the AITA for holding the tournaments, they will strongly contest the AITA’s jurisdiction over them. The dispute will surely escalate and could end up in the covernment’s lap.

Yet another source of irritation for the AITA is the Rs. 100 crore sponsorship Bhupathi has received for the Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 programme. The aim is to produce an Indian Grand Slam winner by 2018. The racy title conjures up images of Tom Cruise emerging successful in ‘Mission Impossible’. The AITA has taken strong exception to the advertisements and newspaper reports on the grounds that it conveys the false impression that the AITA is not doing anything for Indian tennis.

Bhupathi, in a press statement stated, “We have never had a structure to produce players in the country. All eight players who made it to the top 100 in singles or doubles over the last 30 years have made it privately. We have created this structure and are confident it will work. The mission is to produce results.”

Player versus association skirmishes are a global phenomenon and India is no exception. The confrontation between the AITA and the others is moving towards an all out Twenty20 cricket slog.

Indian tennis badly needs an infusion of good quality players without which promotional hype is futile and global recognition a dream.

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