India lose hosting rights for two international tennis tournaments amidst severed Pakistan ties

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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India has been stripped of the hosting rights for two premier international tennis tournaments - Junior Davis Cup and Fed Cup - due to the tense relations with neighbors - Pakistan. On Saturday, the United World Wrestling (UWW) took away India’s hosting rights of the Junior Asian championships.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has moved to take away the hosting rights from India for two international tournaments which were to be held later this year. The Junior Davis Cup and the Fed Cup were scheduled to be held in New Delhi next month but will now be shifted to a different venue. Reportedly, both these competitions will now be played in Bangkok during the same time period. A total of 16 teams in the under-16 age category, including Pakistan, were expected to compete in India for the Davis Cup.

This is the second such action in response after India had earlier denied visas to Pakistani shooters for the ISSF World Cup which was held in Delhi last month. That was a direct consequence of the Pulwama terror attack that took place in Jammu & Kashmir on February 14. Over the weekend, the United World Wrestling (UWW) also stripped India of its hosting rights of the Junior Asian championships. The international body also asked its affiliated federations to stop dealing with India’s wrestling body- Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).

According to a recent report in TOI, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) was asked to give a written guarantee from the Indian government that the traveling Pakistan squad for the Davis Cup would be granted entry visa. In response, the national federation informed ATF about its inability to host the events and asked for a change in venue.

“We all know that the AITA wouldn’t have arranged for a written undertaking from the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the ministry of home affairs (MHA) that the Pakistani tennis contingent would be allowed to compete in the junior Davis Cup. Their names were there in the competition list, so they were coming. Pakistan’s female tennis players, too, have occasionally participated in the Fed Cup. We couldn’t have ensured visas for them either, so the event would have in any case been taken away from AITA. The government is not at all willing to give any undertaking at the moment,” a source told TOI.

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