Callous attitude of PTF officials

Published March 30, 2002

ISLAMABAD, March 29: What happens when a top-ranked player quits the training camp with a Davis Cup tie looming?

Nothing, because the Pakistan tennis managers are simply not bothered.

Had a similar incident occurred elsewhere, the officials would have been pursuing the player trying to persuade him to return.

Unfortunately, our officials neither have the time nor the inclination to do so.

Asim Shafik, who was instrumental in Pakistan’s Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group II win against Malaysia last month is the player in question.

Following an alleged row with the camp management of Bashir Gill and Rashid Malik, he returned to Islamabad last week from Lahore hoping to meet the PTF chief, Anwar Saifullah Khan, to apprise him of the events that forced him to leave the camp.

But he perhaps didn’t realise he was in for a long wait as the president is such a busy person, he does not have time for tennis!

The PTF officials have not made any attempt to sort out the matter with almost a week gone.

Asim has not even been approached once by the powers that be to listen to his version of the story.

Meanwhile, Bashir Gill and Rashid Malik continue to conduct the camp in Lahore as if nothing has happened, the PTF boss continues to look the other way, and the secretary continues to watch from the sidelines.

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