The Indian Fed Cup team will have to do without its captain Enrico Piperno in the Asia-Oceania group II tennis competition in Astana, Kazakhstan, from February 4 to 8.
The Kazakhstan Tennis Association had failed to get the visa clearance for the Indian captain and two players in the squad Prerna Bhambri and Shweta Rana.
Efforts to secure permission from the authorities to facilitate visa-on-arrival on Monday also failed.
Originally, the AITA had named Sania Mirza as captain, with Ankita Raina, Prarthana Thombare and Rishika Sunkara as the Indian squad to meet ITF’s deadline, even before the selectors met in Mumbai to pick the team on January 11.
Revised listA revised list that included the names of coach Shalini Thakur, physio Anand Kumar Dubey, captain Piperno and the two additional players was communicated to the organisers after the selection.
When the visas were given only to the four original players, apart from the coach and the physio, AITA took up the matter with the organisers but to no avail.
