Playing for country, for money

Rio de Janeiro 2016. The Olympics mixed doubles semifinal is on, and an Indian tennis legend is getting a bit anxious, for there looms the real possibility that Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna would beat Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram.

Sania and Bopanna won the first set 6-2, and we — fans, sports writers, coaches, Indian sportspersons — were hoping for an encore in the second… All except the anxious legend. He didn’t want Sania and Bopanna to win a silver — or any medal! — because he had not been picked to partner Sania in the Olympics. Sania-Bopanna were, also, foes to him, for they were members of the camp of his former male doubles partner. Thus, he was willing hard, with all his heart, for Sania-Bopanna to fail, to lose in the semifinals, to not win a medal — the Indian medal count be damned.

In the event, Sania and Bopanna lost the second set 2-6 and the third 3-10 to Venus-Ram; they still had the opportunity of winning a medal, a bronze, but they lost the third-place playoff 1-6, 5-7 to Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka. It was a heartbreaking loss for Sania-Bopanna, for the Indian media pack, for the Indian fans — but not so for the aforementioned legend.

This surreal episode — the anxiousness of this great player at the possibility of a medal for Sania-Bopanna, and then the glee at them missing it — came to one’s mind when controversy broke out over India No. 1 Sumit Nagal demanding $50,000 from the All India Tennis Association to play for India in the Davis Cup tie against Sweden. India, missing top singles stars Nagal, Sasikumar Mukund and Yuki Bhambri, got a 0-4 hammering from Sweden.

Sportspersons are human, not exemplars of morality, rectitude, patriotism. They’re just like us — and possibly we’re a bit better, because we’re never exposed to the temptations that some sportspersons, especially cricketers, face every day of their lives. And if they do give in to temptation, those watching from the sidelines start booing.

Sportspersons turn cynics when quite young, for their experience, of fellow players and coaches, tells them that the sports administrator is venal and undependable — often a politician or bureaucrat or businessman who joins up for clout in his city, then country, then the world. Once they have the vote in, say, the global governing body of a sport, or in the Olympics, such men are like kings — feted and lionised at the biggest sports events in the world. Power can be difficult to digest for the petty — they turn autocrats, treating athletes like menials.

Some of these men turn up at, say, the tennis event at the Olympics, sozzled silly, courtesy complimentary alcoholic beverages. We in the media have seen them countless times, as have athletes. Sportspersons have utter contempt for such freeloaders. Somdev Devvarman, the former India No. 1 who had a highest global ranking of No. 61, said in 2017 about certain AITA officebearers who had missed the fourth and fifth sets of his Davis Cup match in 2014: “They were getting late for their single malt party down at the club as they thought my match was done and I had no chance of coming back. This information certainly didn’t come as a surprise to me. I expect them to be unpolished. I also got a solid whiff of their single malt Scotch as they poured over me with congratulations after the match.”

Nagal, facing criticism for asking for money to play for India, clarified: “It is standard practice in professional sports for athletes to be compensated for their participation in events, even when representing their country.”

Nagal also said he was undergoing rehab after an injury, and had informed “AITA well in advance about my inability to participate” in the Davis Cup.

It must be stated that playing tennis as a pro — with the need for a team of coach, physio, trainer, doctor, etc — is a very expensive proposition, and players do need to focus on their bread and butter, the ATP tournaments.

AITA officials did not reveal that the association does get money from the International Tennis Federation with which to compensate Nagal — that players do get paid for playing in the Davis Cup.

To make matters worse, trust between players and AITA officials is dust — that has been the case for quite some time.

Instead of plotting the rise of Indian tennis, they seem to be working at cross-purposes, taking potshots at each other through the media.

If former players fear Indian tennis is dying, they’re not far off the mark.