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No to Manila, yes to Chandigarh! Back To Main

KARACHI: Pakistan’s first-choice venue for their Davis Cup second round tie against Philippines in April this year is Lahore – a happy hunting ground for the country’s tennis players.

Placed at number two on their preference list as far as the venue for the April 6-8 tie is concerned is a city situated 253 kilometres east of Lahore. And it’s not in Pakistan! Pakistan’s tennis players and officials believe that the next best thing to playing the tie in Lahore is to stage it in Chandigarh, India.

Pakistan have the choice of court since they’ve played their last three Davis Cup ties against the Philippines in Manila but there are strong fears that the international tennis authorities will not allow the match to the go ahead here because of security concerns.

Unfortunately, for Pakistan, it means trouble as they will face an uphill task against Philippines in hot and humid Manila. Pakistan have never beaten the Filipinos in their backyard in three Davis Cup ties played between the two teams in Manila. In 2007, Pakistan had to give up their hosting rights because of security fears only to play and lose their Davis Cup tie 1-4 in Manila. In 2009, facing a similar situation Pakistan lost 2-3 to the Philippines at the same venue.

“It shouldn’t happen again,” says Kalim Imam, the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) president. “We will make all possible efforts to retain the right to host the tie. If not, then we will ask the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to allow us to stage the tie on a neutral venue.”

PTF’s most preferred choice, according to Imam, is surprisingly the Indian city of Chandigarh. “Chandigarh can be an ideal neutral venue for us because the playing conditions there will be similar to what we have in Lahore,” he said.

Rashid Malik, Pakistan’s Davis Cup coach and non-playing captain, backs PTF’s choice. “Grass is our players’ favourite surface and there are plenty of good grass courts in Chandigarh. Equally important are the facts that our team can go there by road and even get the luxury of having many of their supporters traveling with them from Lahore,” Malik told ‘The News’

Other neutral options being mulled over by the PTF include Dubai and London. “We can even host the tie at Wimbledon provided the ITF backs us,” said Imam. But Imam was quick to add that the PTF will first make ‘best possible efforts’ to host the tie in Pakistan.

“We haven’t hosted a Davis Cup match since 2007 and that’s a huge injustice,” said Imam. “The PTF will leave no stone unturned in its efforts to bring back the Davis Cup to Pakistan.”

Back in 2005, Pakistan enjoyed their best Davis Cup year ever when they won the Asia Oceania Group I tournament to qualify for the World Group Playoffs. At that time, they had proved themselves as one of the best teams in the region following home wins against higher-ranked teams like New Zealand, China, Korea, Thailand and Chinese Taipei.

But they lost the ‘home advantage’ after Pakistan became a no-go zone for international teams because of violence and political turmoil. Today Pakistan is graded as a level-4 case by the international community as far as the security situation is concerned. It’s pretty bad because the conflict-hit Darfur region in western Sudan is also a level-4 case.