PTF agrees to Davis Cup tie rescheduling

KARACHI: President Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) Salim Saifullah has agreed to change the Davis Cup tie dates against Indonesia which angered Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and he is likely not to be part of the team.
“ITF once again requested change in the dates because the original dates (July 17-19) of the tie were falling during the Eid days. So after refusing twice, the president PTF agreed to change the dates and now the tie will be held from July 14-16 in Indonesia,” said PTF secretary Khalid Rehmani while talking to ‘The News’.
But this angered Aisam’s father. “This is very sad. We had told them not to agree to change the dates of the tie because Aisam would be busy in his ATP tour. There is Wimbledon before the tie. So Aisam will not be able to play the tie,” Ehtisham-ul-Haq said.
“They (PTF) did not consult us before changing the dates. The same happened in the previous administration of PTF. This is unacceptable,” said Ehtisham.
The PTF secretary said the ITF stated that the new dates also fell in the “allotted week”.
Khalid added that the PTF president agreed to the dates after considering different options. “Indonesia told the ITF that there would be many issues if the tie was held during the Eid days,” added Khalid.
ITF first asked if PTF could extend the tie for a week and then they asked if PTF could agree to play the tie from July 14-16.
The PTF management rejected both options because Aisam would be busy in his tour.
But ITF after holding a special meeting in this regard yet again requested to PTF to “look into the matter”.
Then the ball was in PTF president’s court. And he acceded to the final request of ITF.
Indonesia conveyed its reservations to ITF that there would be Eid, a religious festival, on these dates, which would severely affect the arrangements.
Indonesia, in order to strengthen its case, also mentioned that they would be short of staff and there would be security problems if the tie was held in Eid days.
ITF after PTF’s refusal asked Indonesia that if they could not manage the tie in those dates they should go for a neutral venue and convey their final decision to ITF by April 2.
But Indonesia did not want to go for expensive neutral venue option so they requested once again to ITF to convince Pakistan to hold the tie in early dates if extension was not possible for them.
PTF changed the dates of the first tie of Davis Cup 2014 against Vietnam from January 31-February 2 to February 14-16 on the request of Vietnam as the earlier dates were falling in the Chinese New Year.
That time, too, PTF management did not consult Aisam who refused to play the tie. But he managed to play the tie due to his early exit from an ATP event he was playing before the tie.