April 16, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1429

KARACHI, April 15: Davis Cupper Aqeel Khan said on Tuesday the prize money of the ongoing Pakistan Open tennis championship was ‘meagre’ and not serving the cause of promoting the game.

“Just imagine the purse at stake is similar to that of last year whereas the rate of inflation has climbed up during the period,” he told Dawn.

According to the break-up, the men’s singles winner will fetch Rs30,000 while the ladies’ singles champion gets Rs12,000 out of the total prize money of Rs0.2 million.

“The travel fares have shown marked increase and in such a situation how outstation players, particularly the girls, accompanied by parents, afford to come and compete,” he questioned.

The Pakistan No 1 said most of the upcountry players who do not belonged to affluent class have come only for the sake of ranking points adding that some of juniors were still missing.

To a question, he rated Chief of the Air Staff tournament as the highly paid event on the domestic circuit.

“I received some Rs70,000 plus as the winning purse in addition to free boarding and lodging facilities to at least top eight players in the PAF officers mess in Peshawar,” he remarked.

Pakistan’s most seasoned player rejected the notion that he had become millionaire through prize money.

“If it was so, I would have at least own a house,” said the 28-year-old player in response to a question.

He urged the sport’s controlling body, the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF), to enhance the criterion of Rs1,75,000 for giving permission to hold an all-Pakistan ranking tournament.