Indian Davis Cup team likely to travel to Pakistan after 55 years
New Delhi, Jun 26: An Indian Davis Cup team is likely to travel to Pakistan after 55 years with the national tennis federation AITA hinting that the central government will allow the players to compete against the neighbouring country in September.
No Indian Davis Cup squad has travelled to Pakistan since March 1964 and in that tie, held in Lahore, India had won 4-0.
"We have written to the government and hopefully we will go to Pakistan, that's the impression we have," All India Tennis Association (AITA) Secretary General Hironmoy Chatterjee told PTI on Wednesday.
"It's not a bilateral series, it's (like) a World Cup, so the government will allow. I am confident we will go and play in Pakistan. We will announce it in a day or two. Pakistan Federation has mentioned that the tie will be played in Islamabad."
The winner of the Asia/Oceania Group I tie will move to the World Group Qualifiers.
The last tie between the two nations was played in Mumbai in 2006, which India won 3-2.
Current non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi was part of that team, which also had legendary Leander Paes, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna.
Before that, India and Pakistan played at a neutral venue in Malaysia in 1973.
Pakistan is not likely to pose any serious challenge to the Indian team since none of their singles players are even ranked on ATP computer as per the new regulations.
On the other hand, India's top players Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan have created a few upsets on ATP circuit in recent past.
Pakistan, though, have a good competitor in doubles specialist Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi.
Bopanna and Qureshi have played as a team in the past and the Indo-Pak Express had tasted reasonable success.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) President, Salim Saifullah has said that they will host India on grass courts of Pakistan Sports Complex.
"We are hopeful of earning much-needed revenues for tennis during the live broadcast of the grass court tie as Pakistan and India sporting events garner a lot of interest," the PTF President said.
He said the PTF was confident that the Indian government would clear its team to play the tie in Islamabad.
"It is after 13 years that Pakistan and India will meet on a tennis court," he said.
Pakistan until last year was forced to host its Davis Cup ties at neutral venues as teams refused to travel to the country because of security concerns.
But the scenario changed when Pakistan hosted Uzbekistan, Korea and Thailand in their previous ties.
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IndiGo CEO, accountable manager get more time for replies to DGCA notices
New Delhi (PTI): Aviation watchdog DGCA on Sunday gave more time to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and the Accountable Manager Isidro Porqueras to submit their responses to the show causes notices seeking their explanations on the flight disruptions.
Both have been granted 24 hours more or time till 6 pm on Monday to submit their replies, a senior official said on Sunday.
For six days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have been significantly disrupted resulting in massive flight cancellations and delays impacting travel plans of thousands of passengers. Against this backdrop, the regulator had issued the show cause notices.
In the show cause notices issued on Saturday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had asked Elbers and Porqueras to give their replies by Sunday evening.
The official said the deadline for replies were extended following requests from both the airline executives.
The two executives on Sunday had sought additional time for a response citing operational constraints due to the scale of its nationwide operations and multiple unavoidable factors that contributed to disruptions across several airports, the official said.
According to the official, DGCA continues to monitor the situation closely.
