The All India Tennis Association, on Thursday, sought to buy more time to resolve an unprecedented revolt by top players against captain Leander Paes by deferring to take a decision on the vexed issue.
- Bhupathi sticks to his stand against Paes
The AITA officials, who met for an emergency meeting in New Delhi to discuss the revolt which has rocked Indian tennis, decided to retain the same Davis Cup team for the tie against Japan starting April 11, which means that Paes will continue to remain the captain.
The game's governing body promised to talk to the revolting players and hear out their grievances before taking a final decision, expected only after the Beijing Olympics in August.
Top Davis Cuppers -- Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna, Prakash Amritraj and Karan Rastogi -- recently wrote a letter to the AITA refusing to play under Paes as they had lost confidence in his leadership. They accused Paes of criticising team members in the media and not communicating with them during Davis Cup ties.
Rastogi, however, backed out of the revolt a few days back.
- 'Problems when Mahesh is around'
"Time is too short to consider any issue they like to raise. It is required to talk to the players and selection committee.
"The Japan tie is coming up on April 11 and the committee felt we should not be talking this till the Challengers in May, when all the players will be here," AITA Secretary General Anil Khanna told a press conference after the meeting.
"We can discuss what are the real issues. Sensitivity of the players is required till then," he said.
