ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The Pakistan tennis team returned home quietly in the wee hours of Sunday after being battered by Chile 5-0 in the Davis Cup World Group qualifying round.

Tall claims made by the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) officials in the run-up to the tie that the team would put up a tough fight, quickly went up in the thin air of Santiago.

The results in Chile would have been a whole lot better, only if the PTF officials, three of whom accompanied the side, had been wise enough to send a doctor along as asked for by ace Aisamul Haq who had a suspect shoulder.

But in a blatant disregard to the player who has been the architect of several Cup victories for Pakistan, the tennis managers looked the other way and instead chose to go there themselves on what was a three-week ‘holiday’ for them all for a three-day tie.

The officials seemed so engrossed in preparing for their trip to Chile that their mismanagement led to Aqeel Khan not being able to compete in the Asian Championship in Uzbekistan ahead of the Davis Cup tie.

The PTF officials blundered by sending the poor player’s passport to the Chile embassy which could not be returned in time for Aqeel to travel to Uzbekistan.

But the mismanagement does not end here. So poorly planned was the travel of the team that it took them five days to get to Chile and when they arrived the side was in poor shape.

The money spent on officials’ trip to Chile could have instead been utilised elsewhere — perhaps for the promotion of juniors and women’s tennis which have been at the lowest ebb for the past three years.

Now that the Chile tie is behind us, Pakistan’s problems have been compounded by the fact that they will now be up against Chinese Taipei away in the first round of Asia Oceania Group I in February.

The tennis officials will now have to get down to the drawing board to evolve a strategy for that tie because Pakistan’s away Davis Cup record is very poor.

Out of 50 Cup matches played, the team has won only 16, all of them at home.