Soon after the All India Tennis Association (AITA) announced the new coach and the squad for India’s away Davis Cup tie next month against Sweden, controversy erupted with India’s No. 3 singles player Sasikumar Mukund lashing out at the officials in a social media post.
On Friday, the AITA announced that 41-year-old Ashutosh Singh, former world No 150 in doubles and world No 525 in singles, would be the new coach of the Indian Davis Cup squad, following Zeeshan Ali’s decision to step down in that role.
The AITA also announced the squad for India’s next Davis Cup tie in mid-September with Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sriram Balaji, Niki Poonacha, Siddharth Vishwakarma and Aryna Shah (reserve) getting the call and Rohit Rajpal continuing as captain.
Selection Committee says Yuki Bhambri did not make himself available for the tie
However, two notable absentees in the squad were the country’s No. 2 ranked doubles player Yuki Bhambri and No. 3 ranked singles player Sasikumar Mukund.
“Yuki (Bhambri) was not available for selection and he has not given any reason for his non-availability,” selection committee chairman Nandan Bal told PTI. “We were given a list of available players and his name did not figure there, so we picked players who were available.”
As per the PTI report, Mukund “was handed a two-tie suspension by the Executive Committee for his consistent refusal to play for the national team. He did it three times in a row, so he was not to be considered for two ties. This is the first tie and he will not be considered in the next one too.”
Sasikumar Mukund lashes out in online post
Soon after the news was out in the public, Mukund reacted harshly with a post on social media, stating that he was not even aware that he was under suspension.
“I was asked to play by the captain (Rohit Rajpal) and coach (Ashutosh Singh) and I chose not to play because: a) I don’t have a visa, b) I didn’t want to be there due to bad management, c) I think I hurt somebody’s ego so they came up with a ban that nobody knew about including me,” the world No 476 in singles said.
Mukund also called into question the behaviour of officials involved in the Indian Davis Cup squad.
‘If I have to be banned for something, then a lot of officials have to be banned for life for the amount of players’ money they spend on single malt whiskeys for every tie.’
India will travel to Stockholm Sweden for the World Group 1st round tie on September 14-15. The winner of the tie will move ahead to the 2025 Davis Cup Qualifiers while the losing team will compete in the 2025 World Group I Play-offs.
India have never defeated Sweden in five ties the two nations have played in the Davis Cup, the last of which came in 2005.
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Haresh Ramchandani
