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The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) claimed that the ITF’s Davis Cup Committee has decided that India must play its tie in Pakistan as originally scheduled. The PTF stated that the ITF ruled in favor of Pakistan after India expressed security concerns about sending its team to the country. A senior PTF official stated, “The ITF has stated that Pakistan will retain its hosting rights and has dismissed the security concerns raised by India.”
The Davis Cup Committee has accepted the PTF’s representation against the All Indian Tennis Association’s (AITA) refusal to send its Davis Cup team to Pakistan for the Group I Playoff tie in Islamabad in the first week of February.
“The ITF has clarified that if AITA fails to send its team to Islamabad, the tie would be awarded to Pakistan as there is no basis for India having security concerns about playing in Pakistan,” the official said.
The ITF also mentioned that providing security to the visiting team was the responsibility of the host and they had successfully hosted other teams without incidents in recent times, the official added.
The Indian federation had recently informed the Davis Cup Committee that it is not possible for them to send their team to Islamabad for the tie and called for it to be organized at a neutral venue.
PTF president Salim Saifullah Khan stated that he had raised the issue with the ITF and a presentation was made to the Davis Cup committee recently.
India also did not travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup cricket matches in August and September, resulting in the majority of the matches being played in Sri Lanka, with just four games in Pakistan.
In 2019, the Indian tennis team had refused to play in Pakistan, and the Davis Cup tie was moved to Kazakhstan on the advice of the ITF.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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