Waqar Hamza
 

 

Pakistan was supposed to take part in the pre-qualifying round in Junior Davis Cup under Asia/Oceania category from February 20-25 in Kuching, Malaysia this year.

 

But, sources said, the President of Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF), thinking it as a waste of money, did not send the team. “Apparently, his decision was justified as we did not have good players to compete the round except Talha Zubair,” a source added.

 

“This too has reasons behind it because we were sure of winning the pre-qualifying round, and after that we would go to Australia for qualifying rounds, which would be another flood of expenses for the cash-starved federation,” sources reasoned.

 

Sources said that once a team win pre-qualifying round it becomes mandatory for it to play the qualifying round or the International Tennis Federation (ITF) bans the team.

 

Apart from Talha Zubair, there was one junior player Heera Aashiq who was under consideration, but the Vice President PTF Khalid Rehmani said he was overage.

 

“Shortage of funds was another issue, as this sending of team to Davis Cup (both for pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds) would have cost the federation around 600,000 rupees, therefore, the federation decided not to send the team this year,” sources added.

 

But if argument is accepted, the federation should also consider not sending the national team to Men’s Davis Cup in the next tie keeping in mind the 5-0 whitewash in Manila recently, said tennis experts.

 

This has also resulted in ‘no ranking’ for the team this year.

 

Pakistan was 15th out of 20 Asian nations in 2006; in 2007 it was 11th out of 16 countries; in 2008 it was 15th out of 16 nations; in 2009 it was 12th out of 15 countries.

 

PTF might not send team to this tournament next year as well because they would again have all such never-ending issues of shortage of funds, said sources.