ISLAMABAD: Former Davis Cupper Hameed-ul-Haq has hailed Pakistan Tennis Federation’s decision of sending junior team to Kazakhstan to play the Davis Cup tie against arch-rivals India.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) on the request of India recently decided shifted the tie from Islamabad to the Central Asian country, thus depriving Pakistan of hosting the tie.

In protest against ITF’s decision, the PTF decided to send a junior outfit comprising Huzaifa Abdul Rehman, Shoaib Khan (both 17-year old) and Yousuf Khan (20) for the India tie to be staged in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Nov 29-30.

Shoaib is world No.1004, Huzaifa 446 and Yousuf 1694.

Backing the PTF decision of sending the juniors, Hameed said this is a good step “to [make] the world [realise] that the ITF’s decision to shift the tie was unfair”.

Pakistan’s top players Aisam-ul-Haq and Aqeel Khan in protest against the ITF decision had announced not to play in Nur-Sultan.

“The Indian team is far better than Pakistan and without Aisam and Aqeel there is almost zero victory chance for Pakistani juniors,” Hameed said while talking to Dawn on Wednesday.

However, he reckoned, sending the junior team for the important Davis Cup tie against India would be enough for the PTF to record the protest with the ITF that it unjustifiably deprived Pakistan of hosting the tie.

“In August when on India’s request to shift the tie to a neutral venue the ITF first postponed it, the move was a clear indication that Pakistan would be deprived of its hosting right. The Indian lobby played its role in making this happen, which is not fair,” Hameed highlighted.

Emphasising that Pakistan is a peaceful and sports-loving country which has regularly organised several international sports events during the past many years, Hameed said, “Perhaps they did not know that the PTF in protest would send the junior team if the venue is shifted.”.

Here it is worth mentioning that the PTF had also appealed the ITF decision of shifting the tie to a neutral venue, but the international body did not gave response to the earnest appeal. Pakistan then gave up its right of hosting the event and requested ITF to hold the tie on its own.

The tie was earlier scheduled for Sept 14-15 in Islamabad but was postponed to November after tensions between India and Pakistan reached a higher level following New Delhi’s move to change the special status of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Aug 5.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2019