LAHORE, Nov 15: The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is to help Pakistan to promote the game in the country. The ITF development officer for Asia, Suresh Menon, told reporters on Tuesday that the world body would help Pakistan both financially and technically to expand the game’s activities.

Elaborating on the kind of financial help, Menon said that the ITF was ready to give the PTF a grant of up to $20,000 to complete a tennis complex in Islamabad.

He disclosed that the ITF would also provide gear, besides assisting Pakistani players to travel around the world to compete at international level.

He pointed out that the ITF had also assisted Pakistan’s ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi to travel for competitions.

“Though I have no exact figures of the amount the ITF so far has given to Aisam, it is around $7,000 and we can help out other Pakistani players on the recommendations of the PTF in the same manner,” he added.

He said that the ITF had a specific method to assess the potential of the players before giving them grants to travel for any tournament.

The ITF, he said, would help the PTF to improve the coaching level and for this purpose a Level-I course would be held in Karachi next month.

“Look, Pakistan has only one Level-II coach in Rashid Malik which reflects that the country is weak in this important area,” the ITF officer said.

Menon, an Indian, born in Malaysia, was also not happy over the number of tournaments being played in Pakistan.

“A good number of competitions are a key to groom more players and to produce international stuff,” he remarked.

Asked why the ITF had suspended the School Tennis Initiative (STI) programme for Pakistan which was introduced some four years ago, he disclosed that one purpose of his visit was to talk on its revival.

He said that the STI programme was running successfully in almost all the countries but it was halted in Pakistan following a change at the helm of the PTF three years ago.

He went on to say that the programme chalked out by the new body did not comply with the spirit of the one made by the ITF.

The ITF official along with Punjab Tennis Association secretary Zahid Zafar and senior vice president Rao Iftikhar also visited the infrastructure in Lahore for the game.