Indian Davis Cup Team Mess

[jayakris]

Pretty clean interview there from Mahesh.

By the way, that is the first time I see him speaking of that 1998 Italy tie.

Jay

[madhavan]

It seems to me that Leander Paes has very poor inter-personal skills. If that is the case, then he doesn't deserve to be captain. It was probably a wrong choice all along.  Having said that,  Mahesh  should not be considered for the captain's chair for the following reasons:

1. When Leander took over from Ramesh Krishnan, I distinctly remember Mahesh saying that Ramesh Krishnan was not a good communicator and that with Leander at the helm, it was much better and that he ensures the team has dinner together and all that crap.

2. Now he is saying he wants a non-playing captain.  I guess opinion changes with time. But if Mahesh is making a 180 degree change in stance, he better provide justification. His comments are recorded in print.

3. I have a distinct feeling that the Amritrajs and Mahesh are ganging up to  pull the carpet from under Leander's feet. Prakash could have been more dignified in his protest by taking objection to Leander going to the media about his so called partying on the eve of the tie. That was downright unprofessional of Paes, but by talking to media about what Leander did to Mahesh (next you might have Bopanna talking about what Leander did to Mahima Choudary) is irrelevant and uncalled for.


4 It leaves us with only two choices for captaincy,  Either Vijay Amritraj or  Ramesh Krishnan.  I don't think anyone else will be able to command the respect of the players.

[x_y_Z_a]

AITA has done nothing by having the status quo. The mess was created by Anil Khanna's inaction when the players wanted to discuss the problem with him during the tie. Now AITA believes that the problems will wait till Olympics is finished - what crap. It is worthwhile to note here that they did not communicate with the protesting players before the decision.

I think they have to play Japan with LP, Somdev, Karan and someone like Ashutosh for doubles.

[Kumar]

AITA will change, but it depends on who is driving the change.. It depends on who is forcing the change.IIRC 12-13 years back, AITA was paying LP and RK peanuts during their glory days .. Both LP and RK revolted leading to huge payday for them.  If what MB says is true, LP had a clout to remove  Jaideep Mukherjea.

Look at PA / RB records,

PA 6w - 9L
RB 4w - 10L

Last time, RB won on 3rd day was way back in 2003. And losing on home to Denis Istomin on grass does not inspire confidence . Among his victims, Dustov is the highest ranked player . He has one victory abroad against Dmitri Makeev (whose best ranking is 860). And he is actually concentrating more on doubles nowadays.

Out of PA's six victories, only Dustov was the highest ranked player at 244 (at the time of his victory). None of his victories were away from home.

Maybe LP's presence make them play worse in DC.  With such a record in DC history, AITA will really think twice about listening to them.

[prasen9]

Pretty clean interview there from Mahesh.

I am not so sure.  For example, he seems to be projecting a holier than thou image.

I tried to stay out of it as much as I could.

But the fact of the matter is that he signed his name in the complaint.  And being a senior member, he is therefore a central figure.  Why sign your name and back up the threat and then say "The boys wanted to address the issue."  He should have had the guts to just say that all of us had issues and therefore we took the action.  He seems to be deflecting some of the responsibility now.  At least that was my reading.

He made some wrong calls and now it's blown up in his face.

So team selection is the real issue and the rest are just window dressing?  If they had complained about the other issues and asked remedies, then  I would be with them.  However, he seems to be saying that dropping an Amritraj and some other decisions in the past were sacrilege.

We could have someone else in the captain's chair - Anand Amritraj, Vijay Amritraj

This seems to suggest that he wants an Amritraj in charge.  There is a clear conflict of interest with his son potentially in the team.  Why Amritraj?  He was making the case for a non-playing captain very judiciously, but, then he proposes someone with a conflict.  I would think Krishnan or someone else would be better.

The last two questions were weird.

Anyway, I think going with Harsh, Somdev, Sunil Kumar, and Mustafa Ghouse will weaken the team but maybe not that significantly in the singles.  The doubles point is another story.

[amr090]

lol everyone knows im the biggest of fan of harsh out there but come on he is nowhere near ready to even be playing challengers right now much less davis cup. he needs to get back into peak playing shake and do some damage on the tour before he can even be considered for davis cup ties. 

[wrestlinglife]

the more i read, the more im convinced that all of it has to do with prakash not playing on day 1. rastogi said it, now mahesh says it. the mahesh-amritraj nexis in Indian tennis is not good for the country and these people holding indian tennis hostage for their personal benefit. make an amritraj a captain?! what crap! while the son is in the team...yeah, that's fair.

i believe somdev will rise to the occasion. doubles point is not the issue. leander will win doubles tie with whomever against japan. if somdev can get us a win or two...and one other player can step up, we can do this. i'd rather have four players who are DESPERATE to play for the country.

[madhavan]

1. Mahesh doesn't like Ramesh Krishnan, thats why he has suggested Vijay/Anand Amritraj for captaincy.  Probably there is some family fewd  between the bhupathis and the krishnans(Maybe both Sr Bhupathi and Ramesh wanted to play mixed doubles with Naseema  Mirza but she chose Imran).

2. Mahesh obviously hates Leander, wants to humiliate him and get him to retire.

3. Mahesh wants to play davis cup but only with his cronies, clients, well-wishers and friends. An ideal davis cup squad for Mahesh could be: (Krishna Bhupathi (Captain), Mahesh Bhupathi (Doubles specialist), Rohan Bopanna (singles/doubles player), Prakash Amritraj (Singles/Doubles player), Sania Mirza (Doubles specialist, exclusively for overseas matches, not available to play in local matches), Meera Bhupathi (Stand by), Stephen Amritraj (Stand by) and Enrico Piperno (Chief motivator, masseur).

[wrestlinglife]

Well put!

[sunitarao]

Today  I can say    THAT I TOLD YOU SO.  When I asked  for Lee's head, I was asked to shut up.  But frankly speaking  I never  expected  that this will come to this stage.

  The only way out is  -  Khanna, Lee , Hesh  and  Vijay  should talk it out  and find a solution. Keep  PA and RB  out of this discussion.  They are not mature enough to handle such a serious issue.  May be they change the captain.  May be Lee is asked  to handle his team mates in a more mature way.

  As  of now , it seems  that  PA and RB  will not play Japan  and the team may be  Lee, SKD, KR and Sunil.

    We  may not have a chance against Japan.  But  , for sure, we are already  assured of a place in ASIA  OCEANIC 2009    and  by that time  things will be settled.

[genius]

Karma is totally irrelevant except for trolls. In this regard nballa is the only real candidate and its clear he is not a quality troll.

If he was competent in trolling,His karma should have been up to -200 by now. Considering he has failed miserably, he should quit trolling with immediate effect.

[sunitarao]

It  seems  finally a big  patch  up going on behind the screen as  no  statements are issued by any body  in the last few days.

    Sounds  good.  Hopefully  these guys will sit down    in Dubai  and  sort it out.

      I am    sure  anil  khanna  and vijay  will also  flow down  to dubai  and clear every thing.

    Indian  tennis should not suffer,  at  a time  when we won the 1 st  rd  after  two  years    and actually  can win against  jap  on grass.

[Rajiv]

using tennis parlance , vijay believes the mess can be sorted out

http://sports.indiatimes.com/Davis_Cup_ ... 840697.cms

[PKBasu]

Wow! This thing blew up during the week I was in the US, and I missed it completely -- all 11 pages of it!!! Pure politics is never much fun for a sports fan, so I will probably stay out of the discussion. But this is a terribly sad situation, and I hope a resolution is found soon.

(Btw, during the week I was in the US -- and hardly posting much in the forum -- my "Karma" kept sliding: from something like 117 it has now gone to 101; someone dislikes me intensely, especially some past posts that he/she appears to be reacting to...so JiC, Arun, et al, you are not alone...).

[BSharma]

(Btw, during the week I was in the US -- and hardly posting much in the forum -- my "Karma" kept sliding: from something like 117 it has now gone to 101; someone dislikes me intensely, especially some past posts that he/she appears to be reacting to...so JiC, Arun, et al, you are not alone...).

PKB, 

There is a new thread in the forum on Karma Consciousness that makes a lot of sense. 

On the other hand, I do want you and other members to know that the positive karmas of many members have been deposited into my karma account for safe keeping and you are welcome to withdraw your karmas (including compound interest) at any time.    I may sound like a broken record, but I believe that the karma and spite thingie in the forum must go away. 

The only good reason I can think of for keeping the karma and spite thingie is what 10is_ace wrote in his thread.