The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has reportedly planned to write a letter to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to shift India's Davis Cup fixture against Pakistan from Islamabad to a neutral venue due to the political tensions after India's revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. The Asia/Oceania zone Davis Cup tie is slated to be played on September 14-15.
The Indian Davis Cup team has not gone to Pakistan since 1964. The tie 55 years ago was played in Lahore which India won 4-0. The Indian team were scheduled to visit the neighbouring country again but the recent political tensions have raised a question mark regarding the safety of the players.
As reported by the DNA, a senior official of the AITA mentioned that they are going to send a letter in a day or so, in regards to the matter. The official mentioned that the AITA is hopeful that the ITF will accept the request and further added that the situation has become worse after Pakistan ordered India's ambassador to leave.
"We are hopeful that our request in this regard will be accepted on the simple ground that no team in recent times has played in Pakistan. The situation has become even worse after Islamabad expelled India's ambassador and suspended trade ties," the official told DNA.
The official also mentioned that there is a question mark regarding the issue of obtaining visas from Pakistan. He added that in case of serious security threats, the ITF has always taken the correct decision.
"There is also a question mark over obtaining visas from Pakistan. Even if we get visas on time, what about the security?" the official said.
"Security parameters are set by the ITF. In the face of serious security threats in a country, ITF has always taken a proper decision and shifted many ties to safer places," the person added.
AITA is going to quote the security parameters to the ITF when they make the request for avoiding any penalties. Earlier, penalties have been imposed on countries for refusing to travel to the scheduled venue. The Hong Kong tennis board was fined $10K by the ITF as they refused to travel to Pakistan in 2017.
