Former Davis Cup captain Naresh Kumar will be part of the three-member committee appointed by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) to address the issues raised by the players, who had opted to stay away from Davis Cup duty to emphasise their demands.
Making the announcement after the Executive Committee meeting held here on Sunday, the secretary-general Bharat Oza, stated in a release that Former Justice of Supreme Court, Deepak Verma, and the former chief secretary of Haryana, M.C. Gupta, IAS, will be the other members of the panel.
The committee is expected to study the issues relating to Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympics, Asian Games and other events that would require the federation to select teams for national duty. It is scheduled to have its first meeting in the third week of this month, and submit the report in four months.
Meanwhile, the committee will also make an interim report to help the AITA make selection for the next Davis Cup tie to be played in April.
It was also announced that five units, Delhi, Maharashtra, Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, had agreed to conduct at least one Challenger tournament each during the current season, apart from the ITF Futures and ITF juniors tournaments.
It was declared that coaches Balram Singh and Tahir Ali would be presented the Dilip Bose award in the coaches conference to be held in Bangkok in March.
The AITA has already started a Sports Science Centre at the R.K. Khanna Tennis Stadium and Dr. Vece Paes will be the medical advisor for AITA to implement the programme in Delhi and other centres in the country. Doctors will be trained in sports medicine under his leadership and put on duty in Davis Cup, Fed Cup and other events. The AITA Executive Committee also, “deeply appreciate the selfless services of Dr. Vece Paes for the last two decades”.
The appreciation for coach Nandan Bal and trainer Sanjay Singh, who were on Davis Cup duty over the years, was also put on record.
The AITA also decided to request the government that it should be allowed to follow the guidelines of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), and not necessarily that of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The necessary amendments regarding the sports code in the AITA constitution would be made after the approval of the IOC on the overall guidelines for the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the national federations.
