Amritraj Named Captain Of India Davis Cup

Written by: on 23rd September 2013
ATP Tennis Tournament in Washington, DC.
Amritraj Named Captain Of India Davis Cup

epa03810289 EPA/PETE MAROVICH  |

Some would say Anand Amritraj, elder brother of the more famous Vijay, already deserves a commendation for bravery after agreeing to take on one of the most demanding jobs in tennis, India’s Davis Cup captaincy.

 

By virtue of the constant battling and feuds in the Indian playing ranks, many centering around Leander Paes, diplomacy and patience along with a tennis awareness are the prime requisites. A successful businessman in the Bollywood film industry and a former Wimbledon semi-finalist who won 12 doubles titles, the 61 year-old appears to fit the bill.

 

Amritraj has been announced as the permanent replacement for Shiv Prakash Misra, who offered his resignation earlier this year after eight top players revolted including Rohan Bopanna, Somdev Devvarman and the new captain’s own nephew Prakesh Amritraj demanded a major change in the Indian view of contesting Davis Cup.

 

Initially, the players demanded Rohit Rajpal be made the new captain but the All India Tennis Association stood firm and ordered Misra would remain in the captain’s chair for the ties against Korea and Indonesia before agreeing to find his replacement.

 

Amritraj was a competitive Indian Davis Cup player for 19 years, contesting 39 ties with a winning record of 32-31. Only Paes, with 23 years of competition and counting, has a longer span on the Indian team.

 

He made his debut in April, 1968 as a 17 year-old and bowed out after a World Group first round tie against Yugoslavia in February, 1988 and played throughout India’s run to the final the previous year when they beat Argentina, Israel and Australia before losing 5-0 to Sweden in Gothenburg.

 

This year India lost the February tie against the Korean Republic in Delhi 1-4 with world no. 446 Vijayant Malik and 596th ranked Ranjet Virali-Murugesan filling the doubles spots but things improved in April with a 5-0 win over Indonesia in Bangalore with Devvarman returning to singles duty and helping secure the team a continued place in the Asia/Oceania Zone Group One.

 

AITA Secretary General Bharat Oza said in a statement: “The AITA Executive Committee meeting took place in Goa on September 21, and position of Davis Cup non-playing captain was discussed. It was decided to nominate Anand Amritraj as the non-playing captain for the year 2014.”

 

Zeeshan Ali, who filled the role as coach under the captaincy of Misra will continue in that post and Amritraj’s first tie in charge will be next year’s visit from Chinese Taipei with the venue for the tie yet to be decided.

 

Back in January, Devvarman led the revolt which demanded an overhaul in the support staff, a larger slice of the Davis Cup prize money for players and players’ opinion to carry more weight in the choice of venues.

 

At the time Misra was reported as saying: “”I’m very upset to read that Somdev wants me replaced as the captain… he has played some of his best tennis under my captaincy.”

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