The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : KSLTA backs AITA move

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 03, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Tennis

KSLTA backs AITA move

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Mr. C.S. Sunder Raju, secretary of the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), welcomed the AITA’s move to rein in private promoters who are conducting ATP and WTA events in the country.

In a chat with The Hindu here, Mr. Raju said: “We welcome AITA’s stand and it is time that some monitoring is undertaken to protect the interest of the game.

In a way, we were dismayed that KSLTA’s name was dragged in the issue of cancellation of the ATP event here, though we only offered the venue.

Misconstrued

“It had been misconstrued in some quarters that we were actually involved in the cancellation of the event, when a private promoter (Big Live) was actually involved in it.”

Mr. Raju said that private promoters need to look at larger issues beyond commercial interests. He said that cancellation of the ATP event on “security” grounds did send wrong signals to the international tennis fraternity.

“Right now, the World billiards championship is being conducted in Bangalore and an India-Australia Test Series is scheduled in October with a Test at Bangalore.

Questions raised

“None of these events were postponed or cancelled on security grounds. Australian Cricket Board views any threat perception with utmost seriousness and Bangalore has got a clean chit from them. It raises questions about the cancellation of the ATP event here,” he said.

Mr. Raju also allayed fears over the WTA event in Bangalore scheduled early next year. “We will conduct the event as per our contract with the WTA and definitely there will be a WTA Tour event early next year,” he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport