New Delhi, Dec 11: Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj today strongly defended himself, saying there has never been breach of discipline during his three-year reign and if AITA want to sack him on the pretext of it, he can’t help it.
Amritraj, who took over as non-playing captain in 2013 in place of SP Misra, is facing a lot of flak after reports of indiscipline in the team emerged with AITA going on record to say that there maybe a change in support staff.
However, India’s top singles players have supported Amritraj whole-heartedly and have written to AITA that they do not favour any change in the support staff.
“If the AITA is not prepared to heed the wishes of the players and wants to use some pretext of indiscipline or some comment I originally made about match timings, to terminate me as Captain, then so be it,” Amritraj told PTI.
“I would like the tennis loving public of our country to know that I have always been totally committed to my job as Captain of the Indian Davis Cup team and there has never been and never will be a serious breach of discipline under my watch,” he said.
“Over the past few days, there have been a few articles in the media regarding my captaincy. Most of them have been factually incorrect or totally false. Having played Davis Cup for India for 20 years and twice taken our country to the Davis Cup Final, I know very well the importance of discipline on and off the court.”An emotional Amritraj put forward his explanation on all three charges, levelled against him. It was alleged that a player had brought his girlfriend in the dressing room during the Serbia tie in Bangalore in 2014.
“There is a huge difference between someone being in the dressing room or locker room and the players lounge, which is where she was. The dressing room is where players get changed, have massages and compose themselves before matches. No one other than team members and the trainers and physios are allowed in there.
“The players lounge is where the families, wives and girlfriends are permitted to hang out. I personally did not see this incident, because I was on court during Somdev’s singles match, as was the rest of the team. I’m not sure why this incident is being brought up more than two years later, if it was such a problem, it should have been brought to my notice soon after.
“As captain, I made it a firm rule that no girlfriends were allowed to be present till Friday, the first day of the tie. Even Somdev, who was our top player, would check with me whether he could bring his girlfriend, and I said that if she arrived on Friday morning, that would be fine, not during the five practice days before that.”
It was also reported that one of the younger players brought his girlfriend to Delhi on the Monday of the Spain tie. Amritraj confirmed the incident but said it was dealt with in the best possible manner.
“After consulting with Mr. (Hironmoy) Chatterjee, Zeeshan (Ali), I sat down with the player and told him to send her home, which was done right away.”
