The All India Tennis Association (AITA) on Tuesday suggested that the country's top player Sumit Nagal perhaps deliberately missed the Davis Cup tie against Sweden last week, claiming that he was injured but is now set to play an ATP tournament in China.
India were hammered 0-4 by Sweden and AITA secretary Anil Dhupar said absence of top players like Nagal and Yuki Bhambri in the squad hurt the national team's chances of doing well in the World Group I contest in Stockholm.
Skipper Rohit Rajpal fielded doubles players N Sriram Balaji in the opening singles. Ramkumar Ramanathan was the only experienced player in the squad and two of the other three -- Aryan Shah and Siddharth Vishwakarma -- were debutants.
Niki Pooancha, who is just one-tie old, also largely focusses on doubles.
So effectively, India had just one singles player.
Nagal had opted out of the tie saying that he had some back issue while Yuki did not specify why he chose not to play.
Nagal has entered the ATP250 event in Hangzhou and is drawn to meet a Qualifier in his opening round.
"Definitely if Sumit and Yuki had played, we would have had far better chances. They questioned the management of AITA, the captain and team. Sumit Nagal said he had some back problem, but (is) that problem okay (now)? He is playing a tournament in China, so somebody has to make people understand the right thing," Dhupar said.
Asked Mukund Sasikumar was already suspended by the AITA, Dhupar said despite that, captain Rajpal made efforts to get him on the team.
"The captain called 10 times and that he will request the executive committee to revoke the decision (suspension). It's time for you to play. If there is a decision against you, he will request the executive committee. But he refused."
After India's crushing defeat, Nagal and former players Somdev Devvarman and Purav Raja had questioned the way AITA functions.
Nagal had also questioned why AITA officials were standing in the front row while the players were in the back row ahead of the tie against Sweden.
AITA also released a statement on its Twitter handle, saying that Davis Cup is more than just tennis.
"Representing India in Davis Cup is more than just tennis -- it's about honour, national pride and inspiring the next generation of athletes. Players like Sumit Nagal, Yuki Bhambri and Mukund Sasikumar refused to play for country even though they were participating in other tournaments elsewhere."
"AITA management, including the captain of the Davis Cup team, tried to convince each of them to play for country, but they simply refused," the tennis body said in its statement.
PTI reached out to Nagal, Bhambri and Mukund but all three refused to comment.
AITA also released a list of its work, saying it conducted as many as 829 tournaments for the benefit of the players in 2023 season. It also said that it conducted several courses to develop new coaches and that 130 new coaches had registered with the sports body in the 2024 season.
Asked what point AITA was trying to make with this statement, Dhupar said, "I'm not trying to make any point. I'm trying that there are few things we have done."
"There is one point that people should know. Number two, Davis Cup is definitely a very important. It's more than a tournament, every player who is an Indian should participate if selected. So why not?"
"He (Nagal) said that he had a back injury and now he has entered this Hangzhou Open. He has become alright. My good wishes to him. Let the country decide. Let the people of India decide," Dhupar said.
"And it is not the first time that Mukund refused, three times before. Let the people decide, the players decide what can we do? We tried our best to bring these people on board. If they are not available, what to do?"
Dhupar said that AITA was facing "unnecessary" criticism for the loss against Sweden.
"The new committee is going to be coming in the first week of October. They will decide what is to be done."
