AITA first picks Paes as a nominee to the IOA electoral college, then drops him

Leander Paes

PUNE: The All India Tennis Association (AITA) interim president Chintan Parikh was on Thursday at the receiving end of harsh criticism from federation members after an advisory group replaced initial pick Leander Paes with Parikh himself as a nominee to the IOA electoral college."There was a meeting of the advisory group for nominations today again. As a last minute development, there is a change in the nominations ... all the members (of the advisory group) have unanimously decided to nominate .. Chintan Parikh, as male representative, and Rushmi Chakravarthi, from Sportsperson of Outstanding Merit roster as female representative," Parikh informed the AITA members, a source told TOI.

When contacted, Parikh said in a written statement: "Mr Leander Paes was uncertain about his availability (on the day of IOA elections). Today being the last date, urgently the Nominations Advisory Group meeting was called and it was decided unanimously that as it is customary to nominate the President of AITA for the Electoral College of IOA." In the lead-up to AITA nominations, it is understood that Davis Cup captain Rohit Rajpal had expressed his wish to be nominated.