AITA News .....

[jic]

Mahesh is threatening to take legal action against AITA. The guy can't seem to let it go. Does everything have to be on his terms? He got his way with the Olympics. What does he think now? That he is owed a spot on the Davis Cup team? On what grounds could the ban be illegal? Unless of course ham fistedness and clumsiness and incompetence are declared to be crimes. To me he's just coming across like an onerous, angry, stubborn, low brow individual with no idea of when to let things be. He's done enough damage to himself and others. So may be now he's taking a scorched earth approach because he feels he's got nothing to lose.

[prasen9]

This is precisely why we need some organizational discipline. AITA should have followed a consistent selection policy based on the merits of what the selection committee thought. And, then it should have taken the action and moved on. If the sports minister was calling, let him overturn the selection and overrule the organization and send whatever team he wants. Or the IOC. AITA should not have budged. Now, we see the whole tennis organization crumbling like the hockey federation. In a few years, whatever little we had going at least at the Asian level will also be lost. There will be total disarray. The only saving grace is that tennis is an individual sport. And, some prodigy could come and have the money to train abroad or with some of LP/MB and do it on his own. The less said about the ad-hocness of AITA the better.

[jaydeep]

Bhupathi slams AITA's 'dictatorial attitude'

A hurt Bhupathi made a scathing attack on the AITA and its president Anil Khanna, who he alleged is playing "dirty politics" and creating a rift among players, particularly between him and Leander Paes.

"Khanna has redefined the term divide and rule. The AITA and its dictatorial attitude, and its administration are harmful for the future of Indian tennis."

"My being termed a dictator is unacceptable to me. I don't know if we can do anything, but there is no option not to accept the ban. We will definitely pursue a legal route. (My) lawyers are deciding the course of action; can't say much now."

"He (Khanna) has redefined the term divide and rule and at this year's Olympics he used Leander's shoulder to fire the gun against me multiple times. Unfortunately the media terms this a Bhupathi-Paes rift and the true underbelly is left unquestioned. As far as I am concerned, I was always banned by the AITA, they never supported anything I did for the sport, only when they couldn't do without me and they needed the doubles point in Davis Cup, I got the e-mail. They continue to misuse the power they have to try and teach me a lesson only because they feel I am able to do a lot more for the sports than they do and in the midst of all this, not only did we players suffer but so did the sport and in turn the country."

"I always feel like playing for India. I was available for the tie last week but no one from AITA asked me. I actually got an e-mail about the ban from a press person. Didn't hear anything from AITA."

I played my last match for India in the present circumstances (London Games) and next year will be my last on the tour definitely. A lot of people celebrated on the day we lost (in the Olympics)."

"Tennis has given me everything I am today and, by God's grace, I am able to give back a lot to the sport. I have running tennis events, building tennis courts, raising money for talented kids and even opening academies across the country. However, at every step of the way, the establishment has put spokes in the wheel. So much so that they changed the constitution to make sure I am not able to run any event in India without them being a part of it."

"Anil has been upset with me for being able to develop talent, which he should have done. For developing avenue and for developing the game."

Talking about the fiasco ahead of the Games - "No one made an effort to talk to me or Leander. Zero effort was made to get us in a room and solve the issue. Two days after the beginning of French Open, AITA told me that we (Bhupathi and Sania Mirza) weren't the obvious choice for mixed doubles in Olympics."

[krinix]

I feel the exact same way about AITA, as Hesh does. Bunch of Aged bafoon'ss, not being able to run a sports body.
Hesh and Bops being targeted needlessly. AITA agreed to send two teams to olympics in the end, isnt it? Then why the ban?

[sameerph]

Hesh and Bops being targeted needlessly. AITA agreed to send two teams to olympics in the end, isnt it? Then why the ban?

They were blackmailed into doing so by Hesh & Bops also putting pressure thru sports minister & SM Krishna. Now, AITA is paying back. Neither side is totally on the right side but this was waiting to happen after the drama before London games.

[vk2052]

I am shocked that no one has felt the tremors of bomb shell that has been thrown by Mahesh at AITA, IN HIS PRESS CONFERENCE yesterday which was beamed live on all channels and is all over media today morning. I dont want to say any thing ,lest you start saying- VK you are at it again. Has any body seen it on tv or read any thing in news papers?

[vk, I deleted the posts where jaydeep directed you to this thread where it had been discussed, and your response that the MB thread was better for it. Actually this is indeed the right place, because the issue deals with a lot more details pertaining to much more than just MB, and all of it is about AITA.. Moved the other posts also to this thread.. Mod, Jay]

[kujo]

I am shocked that no one has felt the tremors of bomb shell that has been thrown by Mahesh at AITA, IN HIS PRESS CONFERENCE yesterday which was beamed live on all channels and is all over media today morning. I dont want to say any thing ,lest you start saying- VK you are at it again. Has any body seen it on tv or read any thing in news papers?

no bomb, no shell; just a turd thrown by Mahesh at AITA!

let him file a lawsuit, go to court, win the case in court (never gonna happen since we all win by simply getting a "stay order"); then may be (just may be) it is a bomb shell (still a shell, not a bomb!!)

[Atithee]

AITA response in the link below. I do not put much faith in this posturing. The fact, however, remains that AITA has a BIG influence on players' national level representation, which indirectly impacts their whole career, especially for up and coming players.

We are a democratic institution, not one-man show: AITA

I had posted the first news item here and it went unnoticed for a while. Good that Jay has moved the posts from the MB thread here. RB has strangely let MB be his mouth piece. It is a dumb move; he could still be in the picture if he simply apologizes for creating the situation no matter how wronged he feels. Or, he is probably dreaming that AITA will come back to him on their knees when tougher opponents show up. MB has played his last match for India and is just hyper-ventilating. The fact of the matter is that his XD slam successes do not mean much and even he would acknowledge that his best days were when he partnered with Paes. So demands based on his slams successes do not hold much weight. Paes is no saint but he has handled the situation better. I am sure, privately, he is no lover of AITA either, but he knows how to use them to his advantage.

[PKBasu]

The most extraordinary aspect of MB's hyper-ventilation was his claim that AITA had always tried to "divide (him from Paes) and rule"! Come on! It wasn't AITA that put those noxious words about Paes into MB's mouth (and press releases) before the Olympics...Seemingly trying to bring LP onto his side (against AITA) is audacious, to put it mildly!

[Kumar]

The most extraordinary aspect of MB's hyper-ventilation was his claim that AITA had always tried to "divide (him from Paes) and rule"! Come on! It wasn't AITA that put those noxious words about Paes into MB's mouth (and press releases) before the Olympics...Seemingly trying to bring LP onto his side (against AITA) is audacious, to put it mildly!

Yes, that was really funny...Sometimes life is not generous and neither it is democratic... Victors make the rules in almost 95% of the scenarios... and when you rebel and you can't win, there would be consequence...

[jayakris]

But it is sad when the majority of informed folks also just fall for the game played by the "winners" - hook, line, and sinker. At least acknowledge that a clever game was played and that the rebel was set up to have no option but lose, right from the start.

It frustrates me to see the no-holds-barred Mahesh bashing that is going on. And Rohan-bashing.

Jay

[PKBasu]

Jay, I hear you. I hate having to take sides in the LP-MB disputes, and I almost regret calling MB's latest tirade "hyper-ventilating".

But on this matter of the Olympic selection, I think the AITA selectors were on solid ground. MB-RB had done nothing (despite their half-year-long association) to suggest that they were a better bet for a medal than LP-partner. So asking MB or RB to partner LP made eminent sense -- and was the right decision from a pure merit perspective (especially as LP was the only one who had qualified for the Olympics).

MB's press releases and ranting in response were unseemly, at best. Additionally, it was bizarre that -- given that his best chance for a medal was in MxD with Sania -- he should put all his eggs in the RB basket, without recognizing that he was jeopardizing his own relationship with SM. Somehow, MB seems to have felt that (as the master of Globosport) he was the puppet-master of the entire tennis brood in India, and could have his way with everyone but LP. Clearly, he miscalculated.

RB's entire behaviour throughout this episode has been atrocious and, frankly, quite stupid. He is the only one who seems to have tanked a Davis Cup match to prove his loyalty to MB. He led a revolt against LP a few years ago too, when he simply didn't have the stature to do such a thing. And he had the chance to rationally consider LP's offer to be his partner on the tour this year (when approached by LP in October 2011); instead of giving it his professional consideration, he put loyalty to MB first, widened the LP-MB rift, and took a decision based on emotion. Damn stupid fellow, in my view. (My view isn't quite as extreme as Kim's on the matter, but RB has not earned the right to behave the way he has done; he has won just two consequential live Davis Cup singles rubbers for India, after all, and that isn't the basis for all this strutting; we were all rightly impressed with his Verkerk match, but that was still a loss, albeit an awfully narrow, and perhaps unfair, one).

[jayakris]

PKB, The selectors and all were not the issue. AITA's not doing things last year, perhaps because they would rather see MB fight a rebel war and badly get burned, or perhaps because they were clueless, is the real issue. MB may be right that they used LP (who may not even have seen it that way and quite probably had no idea that such a game was on). Back last year when people knew that all three would be trying to figure out their 2012 partner plans, AITA stayed away. They probably knew that MB and LP will drive to a cliff from where only MB could fall. They might also have guessed that LP would not do, nor would have to, do anything to keep himself honest to his beliefs. They might have lso guessed that MB, if he would be honest to his beliefs like he had been, would do something and would have to drive the car off the cliff last december itself [there is a very elaborate post coming from me on this below, soon]

RB was immaterial, except that if he wasn't there, the car would have to stall, and a compromise that neither LP nor RB agrees with would have happened once again, and AITA wouldn't get a chance to play a game even if they wanted.

What you call "bizzare" above, is itself the biggest reason that exonerates MB and proves that he was doing nothing but following what was the right thing to do in his heart. Because if an LP-MB medal was not going to happen, he would know that an RB-LP medal would not be happening either (both because of how he knew LP would want to prepare for Olympics - which is to NOT prepare. That is the fact. Only LP can think so, but he did/does. If anybody can make that plan work, that would be LP too ) ... As for MxD, the right thing for MB to think was that there wasn't a huge impact on medal chance whether him or LP played with SM, because no pair comes prepared at Olympics. So he had to focus on having a men's doubles medal pair prepared the normal way (which LP didn't believe in). That is all MB did. That was the fall off the cliff that happened last November itself.

That may all sound like I am giving some goody-goody story. There was all the rest of the nastiness that happened. As I will post soon and show, the rest of the nastiness was immaterial, and I don't care.

Jay

[jayakris]

Let me ask a question. A rather elaborate one, in which the relevance of AITA would not be immediately clear, but it would slowly become clear (hopefully).

Background. Let us take everything else out and just look at the tennis aspects of what happened. It is Nov 2011. Consider that LP and MB had a disagreement on how to prepare for Olympics, knowing that what they did the last 4 times failed (and in at least 3 of those cases MB wanted longer preparation time). LP wanted to make the preparation even less to nothing more than a couple of events, to be fresh - the danegerous and unproven plan that only geniuses like LP think of. And MB wanted it extended to at least 4-5 months - the proven plan that all top doubles players have followed so far for Olympics. This is not an assumption. This disagreement has existed all along between the two. They tried some half-way neither-here nor-there schemes before that neither liked and none of that proved to work. So neither is willing to negotiate on it. (a) LP feels that LP-MB without his preparation scheme would be worse than LP-RB. (b) MB feels that LP-MB without his more-accepted preparation schemes (actually the *only* accepted preparatin scheme) would be worse than MB-RB. These are not assumptions. That non-negotible opinions (a) and (b) existed is one thing that LP and MB will agree on, with me. Meanwhile, RB had already decided to drop everything and be at service, if he is called up to play with either LP or MB (which he does even by really disappointing his deeply-trusted partner who knows that RB isn't needed for India while he needed RB). [btw, a further item (x) is at the bottom of this post that some acute observers may need, but not important now].

Fact: I think most here would find it tough to fault each guy for their judgment, and neither would most of us say that (a) or (b) is an incorrect opinion. If we were asked to pick one of the two to be more correct, we would struggle to answer. Actually, if it is anybody but LP who is giving opinion (a), I am sure 95% here would go with opinion (b). But here we do have LP the genius with an opinion that we cannot discard. A tough-to-crack tennis disagreement.

Question: What should have been the "right thing" for MB to do, to avoid the mess that happened that he is taking all the blame for? I assume that all of us want him to have done the "right" thing. By definition, it can only be what he knows in his heart and tennis-brain as the right thing for the country, giving India the best chance of winning a medal. [by the symmetric nature of the question, I could ask a question like this about LP too, but as I wouldn't yell at him for being the odd-thinking genius, and neither are any of you yelling at him, I am not asking that question]

If you can give me an answer that MB could have followed where he would be doing the right thing, I will let you yell at him. If not, I will show you that your yelling better be all at AITA, as there would NOT be a solution without them doing something LAST NOVEMBER with a backbone. If they say that they do have a backbone, then I will call them out for playing games. But I will not accuse them of playing games against MB at the country's expense, if they admit to being cluless and incompetent.

All the rest of the crap - the newspaper comments, when RB contacted whom and whether RB was MB's friend, or whether there was an MxD angle with Sania etc, are ALL immaterial. Nothing would have changed whether any of them happened or not. So, answer my question. If you can't, then agree that who caused this was AITA and nobody else.

Jay

(c) -- LP feels that LP-RB is better than MB-RB if LP-MB will not happen as per LP's plan of preparation. MB feels that MB-RB is better than LP-RB if LP-MB will not happen as per MB's plan of preparation. i.e., an RB playing with an LP who again doesn't believe in long preparation, would be better than an RB paying with MB after months of preparation. Both opinions are correct if they are following India's interest according to their respective tennis judgment, even if LP feels he could be worse than MB as a player and MB feels that he could be worse than LP as a player! These are statements of logic, actually.

[jayakris]

Oh, also, if that whole thing put you to sleep, sorry... Then I will make it easier. Just take my word and stop bashing MB, that would do ...

One more thing. My logic-based analysis allows collective or pair-wise bashing, and not individual bashing. As for the players' behavior, the logic requires that each of them is incapable of changing his own opinions without authority or mediator presence. Bashing for that behavior is fully allowed, but then all of them get it togeher. That is precisely the reason why I called them all "children" all along. That is my collective bashing. But people can often collectively become children when those who are supposed to play the authority or mediator role abdicate their responsibilities cluelessly or deliberately.

I better go to sleep. 12 am.

Jay