AITA snubs rebels, picks second-string team for Davis Cup

The All India Tennis Association was today forced to pick a depleted squad for the Davis Cup tie against South Korea, snubbing the eight revolting players who refused to make themselves available.
AITA snubs rebels, picks second-string team for Davis Cup

The All India Tennis Associationwas today forced to pick a depleted squad for the Davis Cuptie against South Korea, snubbing the eight revolting playerswho refused to make themselves available.

The revolting players were given time till today toconfirm their availability for the tie to be held here onFebruary 1 to 3 but none of them budged from their stand.

The AITA's selection committee, which met here today,picked the squad which has only one senior player in LeanderPaes.

V M Ranjit (517), Vijayant Malik (542) and Purav Raja(155 in doubles) were the other members of the squad.

S P Misra will be the non-playing captain while ZeeshanAli will be the coach.

The revolting players wanted Misra to be replaced as thenon-playing captain and also wanted a new coach apart fromother demands such as a larger share in the prize money andair travel upgradation.

Selection Committee Chairman Anil Dhupar announced theteam in a packed press conference where senior AITA officialsexplained the Association's stand and described the players'boycott as "unfair and unjustified".

The AITA officials claimed that the Indian players wereoffered the best remuneration in the entire Asian region andgave the break-ups of some of the senior players' financialpackages to back their claim.

In India's most recent Davis Cup tie, the team had beatenNew Zealand 5-0 with young players such as Yuki Bhambri,Vishnu Vardhan, Divij Sharan and Sanam Singh in the absence ofstar like Somdev Devvarman, Mahesh Bhupathi and RohanBopanna.

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