AITA seeks Sports Ministry's advise on India Davis Cup team's tour to Pakistan
New Delhi, Dec 26: The All India Tennis Association (AITA) on Tuesday sought the Sports Ministry's advise on the national team's travel to Pakistan for the Davis Cup World Group 1 Play-off tie against the neighbours at Islamabad in February next year.
The AITA's move came after the International Tennis Federation Tribunal rejected its request to shift the tie to a neutral venue.
"We have asked for Sports Ministry's advise as to what is the policy on travelling to Pakistan. It's a World Cup of tennis. We are awaiting reply," AITA Secretary General Anil Dhupar told PTI.
The tie is scheduled to be played at the Pakistan Sports Complex on February 3 and 4.
Dhupar had earlier told PTI that the AITA will approach the Sports Ministry on Monday and seek guidance if they can send a team.
India and Pakistan were last drawn against each other in 2019 and the tie was scheduled to take place across the border as the Indians had hosted the previous encounter in Mumbai in 2006.
But the AITA managed to shift the tie to a neutral venue, Kazakhstan, citing political tensions between the two countries.
The Indian Davis Cup team last travelled to Pakistan way back in 1964 when Akhtar Ali, Premjit Lall and SP Misra helped the visitors win the tie 4-0 in Lahore.
The Indian cricket team last toured Pakistan in 2006 but since then the two sides have not played a bilateral series for more than a decade due to diplomatic tensions between the neighbouring nations.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
