Sunitha to play for India (The controversy)

Post by **jayakris** » Mon Aug 18, 2003 1:59 pm

Yeah, I think we got off the topic here with the Sachin discussion.

As for Sunitha, I hear from the grapevine today that all talks between AITA and her dad are finally "OFF". This is it. it is done, as of now. I suppose that means there isn't much chance for her to play for India or anything. That is sad, but heck, what can anyone do when two sides are poles apart like things were in this case.

I wish her dad had tried to explore some ways to find money from industry sponsors from India (which would have taken some time) and kept things going for a while without acrimony. Even looking into some direct government (ministry) support like somebody suggested here (which would have been even tougher and I suppose would have required the right kind of people to get involved, but at least GOI has the kind of money we are talking about). Heck, he should have talked to Mr.Naidu I suppose - after all she has AP ancestry; you never know what kind of angles Naidu would have seen in this opportunity.

Looking at AITA as the big-money sponsor just does not make sense. Everybody and his uncle knows there is no way they can shell out this kind of money. He could have gone with AITA at least for a few months and simply walked away AFTER that, saying he gave it a real shot and that there was no money coming from India for him to support the daughter. Aaaarrrgghhh ...

Jay

IndiaFan1 · Post by **IndiaFan1** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 12:12 am

Jay..yes I agree. I do not think any government agency should be in the business of sponsoriong (paying) for a single player. They should promote programs that benefit a large pool. I was shocked to see that AITA did offer to pay her $70,000 per year! That is a lot more than most of the Indian girls have ever made! Not fair.

I think as talented as Sunitha is, Mr. Rao should wait until she establishes herself. Let her compete for the position of number 1 player in India. Popularity of tennis is rising in India and as more yougsters make waves, Industry will start sponsoring the good palyers. Sunitha could be at the top of the table making some real money, in no time!

Again. she needs to let her racquet do the talking instead of her Dad! Also, Mr. Rao should not expect a payoff off of the backs of the Indian taxpayer!

IndiaFan1

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 10:02 am

It is tragic what has happened to Sunitha over the past few months. Her dad -- who was instrumental in getting her to the top-150 in the world -- unfortunately made a public-relations disaster of his attempt to get Sunitha qualified to play for India. We should not be too hard on him: he had been out of India perhaps too long to remember that US-style hardball is not the way one negotiates back home. Sunitha needs all the support she can get, and will definitely have it here (if only she would read our forum!). She will certainly come through eventually, but she shouldn't be allowed to lose crucial months at a very important stage in her development.

IndiaFan1 · Post by **IndiaFan1** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 4:21 pm

Sunitha is, no doubt, under a lot of pressure and perhaps disiilusionment.

PKBasu - It is not the hardball tactic of Mr. Rao that was the problem. The problem is what he was asking for. If his demands were right and justified any tactic including, hardball would have worked, even in India. Because of the unreasonableness of his demands he has invited the wrath of AITA, the Media and ultimately the Indian people.

It would be absolutely wrong to say both India and America do not want her. I believe India will take her right back if Mr. Rao drops his demand for reimbursement of past lifetime expenses.

Although, there will be some discrimination in US, they can not deprive you if you are good. Otherwise, Rajeev Ram would not be getting as much press! Sunitha just has to be a bit better than others to get the same recognition. See how Althea Gibson & Arthur Ash did it during the times when discrimination was not only the norm but quite acceptable!

Sunitha just has to work though it, use these setbacks as motivators and get better. Once she proves herself no one will be able to deny her the opportunities. She needs to start winning first!

Hunker down and Go Sunita! You can do it!

IndiaFan1

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:46 am

Probably she has to take a small break from tennis and relax for a while and not pay attn to media (as to what they are saying about her dad).
I feel it is also time, we keep focussing on what her Dad says and just focus on her accomplishments

Post by **Dhruv** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:51 am

I agree with Kumar and I'll add some teeth to this Next poster to mention Sunitha's Dad starting now will be banned from posting for two days

Ok well if it's good news there can be exceptions....

Post by **jayakris** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 2:51 am

I agree with Dhruv. OK, let us just follow Sunitha Rao and not the person who is her paternal grandmother's son, who has a daughter who plays top-200 tennis (see I didn't mention what Dhruv said I shouldn't mention!

)

Moratorium on criticizing the said person, at least till there is some further news (hopefully good) concerning that person. Let us not continue to throw venom at somebody who is after all not even here to defend himself. I know I started it, but it's time to move on and just be fans of the tennis player Sunitha Rao.

I do wish we had somebody here close to Sunitha to tell us more on their side of the story.

Jay

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 4:35 pm

Hey guys take it easy on the dad.

This bit deserves to be written about, at least. It was obvious that poor Mr. Rao has been taken in by the bullshit (sorry, but there just ain't any other word for it) that AITA regularly peddles. Yes he seemed to have forgotten how it works in India. Here officials will mouth whatever nonsense they feel like comfortable that they'll not get the whipping they deserve when it's discovered that they were lying. And this particular official lies, lies and then, just for the heck of it, lies some more.

Mr Rao was certain, and the man is no fool, that his daughter's costs would be met by AITA. I am sure AITA never told him the true picture. They let him believe what suited their efforts at roping another kid to bolster India's challenge in Fed Cup. AITA knows they do not have a player of Sunitha's calibre just yet. And their pipelines have this habit of consistently springing leaks. So they led Rao up the garden path till he was committed; as in he had broken off with USTA. Then AITA changed its tune.

That Rao consistently kept talking about being paid for training his daughter clearly shows that he had been made to believe that would happen. He comes across as a smart man who got mugged. Since he's not a slime he didn't anticipate it. His subsequent letter made convenient fodder to be released to the media. He had been too honest. A ceratin lot of journalists fell for the "look he wants money for the honour of his daughter representing India". Whether they fell for it or they chose to go for it is another question.

In the wheels within wheels there is a new bogey that AITA now holds out to journalists in the Capital: A free membership of the spanking new India tennis centre which is a psuedonymn for a rich man's club. Does a journalist who has taken that membership lose the right to talk about AITA? That's a tricky question. Will he ever criticise without bias? Interesting bits to ponder. (I wonder if JAy will let this stay here for long

It?s an oft-repeated story. Even here it would not be prudent to divulge details of deals that never came good. Deals that were promised by a man in a position that people take to be respectable.

Let the dad be. He never knew what hit him. Lets hope Sunitha has the strength of mind to get beyond this. Something tells me, she does. That, above all, will be the final bit of bullshit on AITA's face.

Edited by Dhruv for formatting purposes. No content edited

Post by **Dhruv** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 4:36 pm

It'll stay. Don't worry about that. I'm the admin and can make deleted posts come back if I want.

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 4:42 pm

Thanks mystery man. You are doing a good job here

Post by **jayakris** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 7:48 pm

whatever wrote: In the wheels within wheels there is a new bogey that AITA now holds out to journalists in the Capital: A free membership of the spanking new India tennis centre which is a psuedonymn for a rich man's club. Does a journalist who has taken that membership lose the right to talk about AITA? That's a tricky question. Will he ever criticise without bias? Interesting bits to ponder. (I wonder if JAy will let this stay here for long

I do take offense at that. When have I kept out criticism of AITA, either here or in the old TennisIndia forum? I criticize them plenty - but I am a positive guy and normally do not start criticizing till I know things have been totally botched up.

I disagree with most of what you say on this matter, based on what I know from several sources, some of it about how things went with USTA and nothing to do with AITA (and you are wrong that those USTA ties were cut "after AITA led him on" - no way; there was nothing left to cut there, for at least for over an year!).

And if you believe that AITA lied that they will pay $1M (5 crores) for her past expenses, I don't know what to say. If anybody takes whatever was said by AITA to imply that (or believed it even if AITA lied with a figure of Rs 5 crores), what can I say?

What AITA did with tennis club membership is the kind of stuff organizations interested in bottom line PR does all over the world. I am glad they are doing it that way, because it shows they are aware of how the world works. I would rather have it that way than to have retired government officials running these organizations like its is a GramaSevak office. The journalists around the world know how to keep the proper distance while taking the goodies. It is THEIR duty to do their work with honor - and I am glad AITA is looking at bottom-line cost-benefits for their own objectives. They have clearly shown an understanding these days that they will get nowhere in their objectives without good players and have been doing good things with their own selfish motives. Fine with me!

As for a letter being leaked, I didn't know if AITA is the one who leaked the letter - the newspapers had talked to him and had heard exactly the same words from him anyway (unless you are saying that some of our newspaper guys LIED and misrepresented what he said -- I doubt those like Kamesh Srinivasan and S.Kannan would do that). "She can take India to the world group, She can represent India in Olympics - but it is going to cost money" --- that tone didn't help. I am not going to blame the news scribes on this.

Look, if you are saying he was promised up to a crore or something for past expenses, and he believed it and AITA backtracked it later, I might even buy your story. But not a MILLION. Somebody is being very delusional in hearing what he wanted to hear and then believing that he was lied to. AITA is very good at the game and they know very well how to keep people off-balance and confused, but even they wouldn't be able to convince somebody that easily about a promise for 5 crores! That is the only logical explanation, to me.

By the way, let us assume AITA promised $1 Million aduring French Open for SR's past expenses. Had they stuck to that word, I would be the maddest man in the world and would never forgive them for not having given even 5% of that to support Niru and Laxmi Poruri in the past. That would be the biggest waste of $1M by a tennis federation ever in the history of the game [by the way, do you all realize that there is possibly NO tennis federation who ever paid a player even half of that amount for developement EVER? --- including the Williamses and Hingises out there?]. Sorry, I have all the respect in the world for Sunitha, but the only way she can make me regret saying that would be by reaching inside the top-5 of WTA ranking. Nobody below that is worth that kind of money from the Indian federation. You see, this disagreement on what exactly she is worth, is also a part of this tussle.

Sorry Dhruv that I responded. I will shut up, unless it is implied that I am towing the AITA line and is the type who would censor some criticism ...

Jay

amr090 · Post by **amr090** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 10:10 pm

Jay I defintely agree with your point....theres no way the AITA, an organization which isnt exactly one of the richest in the world, can and should ever commit to paying one player so much money. They can't pin their hopes on one player especially when there are so many India playing tennis in far worse circumstances.

This is not a criticism of Sunitha's father as I laud of him for taking interest in his daughter and trying to do what he can to fund her expenses. However, I feel maybe after being out of India so long he didn't think from their point of view about how expensive supporting one player would be. All the reports I have read in the papers regarding him lead me to believe he is a good man, and a patriotic man. In fact, we should not forget his original intention of having his daughter play for India was a good one. Let us hope that he will realize playing for his country is of great benefit and a great matter of pride. I am sure he is proud to be an Indian and he will reconsider.

Anyways, we are all hoping for the best.

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Sun Aug 24, 2003 4:35 pm

whoa.
Jay you really like to sink your fangs into what irks you and worry it down to the bone. Good. Good.

Perhaps my facts are not as clear as I believed them to be. Perhaps I am just being rabid. Possibly AITA's made such a sceptic of me that I like to believe the fantastic rather that the official version.

But surely it is worth a thought. If I am being fantastic suggesting that Rao was promised loads of money (I confess I am not aware of the sum), isn't everybody guilty of the same for believing someone actually demanded that much?

I do not doubt the integrity of some of our reporters. I am wary of others. And I firmly believe taking goodies sullies the pen, dulls the vitriol and introduces slant. Thats of course personal perception. But thats just a general statement. The gentlemen you mentioned have written divergent reports. You seem to have quite a stack of links about old articles. Who spoke to Mr Rao and exactly what he said is more in your more exact and exacting cyber domian than in my cluttered mental state.

Journalists are just like you and me. They too have human fallacies. Then all writing stems from interpretation of facts. That introduces the personal dimension in each copy. Why put them on a pedestal? Its delusional to say that all stick to "the duty with honour" bit.

Post by **jayakris** » Sun Aug 24, 2003 5:16 pm

Thanks, whatever, for not taking my harangue as an attack at you.

Perhaps I should spend some time putting all the links and news articles in chornological order and see what was done/said, and when.

Also, you do raise an interesting point on what exactly Manohar Rao asked for, and how he worded the $945K figure - perhaps the exact letter itself need to be looked into, to figure out whether AITA (and the press) presented the figure from him as more of a rigid "demand" than it was ...

But the bottom line remains that he was totally unable to present his side to the Indian press at all, and gave all the infuriating lines for them to quote. There is no doubt that he could have put AITA much more on the backfoot had he said the right things to the press. This is where it all broke down completely and even all of us Sunitha supporters were left with no choice but to turn against him.

Jay

PS: Agree that we shouldn't expect journalists to "do their duty with honor". Just that I don't really blame AITA for trying to get the journalists on their side, and the blame really should rest ONLY with the journalists if they don't know how to handle that!

IndiaFan1 · Post by **IndiaFan1** » Sun Aug 24, 2003 6:56 pm

Whatever..Read your posts and interactions with Jay with interest. You have made a lot of accusations and stated things as if you had an inside track in to the AITA's dealings.

I know for a fact that many sports and for that matter other associations in India indulge in corrupt practices incuding nepotism, regionalism and greed. However, before you accuse any such body of such parctices you must have some proof. In the absense of proof you can speculate and express your opinion, but then identify those as such. Please do not state those as facts.

I could be wrong, but I have not seen anything in your posts that tells me that your statements are based on anything but speculation. If you do know something, I for one, and perhaps the rest of the forumers would welcome an insight in to it. Otherwise, type away in these forums to your heart's content, but identify those as your opinions.

As far as reporters are concerned, those who are true to their profession are the ones who can rise above the temptations of freebies and provide us unbiased reports. In this arena, some have come close but you will never find perfection. Again. unless you know specific journalists who have unfairly cowtowed the AITA line, you can just speculate. I do not think any of the forumers will have any problem accepting those as your opinions.

IndiaFan1