AITA chief defends Paes

NEW DELHI, February 25: The secretary of the All India Tennis Association, Anil Khanna, has the unenviable job of placating the dissenting quartet ��� Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna, Mahesh Bhupathi and Karan Rastogi ��� and reassuring Davis Cup captain Leander Paes at the same time that the tie against Japan is not in jeopardy.
Though he was told about the problem the players have with Paes on the last day of the Uzbekistan tie, Khanna chose not to react to it then.Khanna wanted the players to wait till after the Japan tie to act on their grievances.
"I was told about the problems on the last day of the tie and I felt that since it's so close to the Japan tie, we should all sit down and talk this matter out in May when Rohan and Prakash would've been here for two weeks of Challengers. What we need is a calm mind while approaching such a problem. You can't deal with it 10 minutes after winning a match. Instead, I came back from Doha on Thursday night and found the mail," Khanna said.
"This problem goes beyond tennis," he said with a touch of sarcasm.
It will not be incorrect to assume that being kept out of the Uzbekistan tie till the third day didn't go down well with Amritraj, and Rastogi, who is party to the mail that was sent to AITA, admitted to as much in a statement on Sunday. "I think it all started the minute Prakash didn't play his match, or didn't get select to play against Uzbekistan."
Amritraj and company have threatened to stay away from the Japan tie if Paes stays on captain but Khanna doesn't think his hand can be forced. "The AITA can't be forced into taking any decision. I didn't ask them to send me a mail. And we will decide what we deem fit," he said.
Pointed comments have been the bane of Indian tennis for quite some time now and Khanna intends putting an end to that soon. "I don't want to tell the players what they can talk about and to whom. But during Davis Cup ties, I want to implement a code of conduct for the players under which the boys would refrain from talking about each other. They should restrict their comments on their matches and their preparations. Mahesh had no business being dragged into making any comment on the Leander-Prakash issue," he stated, revealing that the code would be formed by the end of April.
Khanna backed his captain's decision of fielding the team he did against Uzbekistan and made it clear that Paes is not on judgement. "I think what Paes decided was the logical choice. He discussed with me what he had in mind. It wasn't a personal decision," Khanna defended his captain, though he did admit that Paes could've handled the situation with a tad more maturity. "I do agree that Paes should've been more responsible with his words. Prakash also should not have made his feelings public," he added.