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Vijay unhappy with govt flip-flop
The sports ministry backtracked on plans to ditch the passport rule that has blocked Prakash Amritraj’s return to Davis Cup action, the player’s father, Vijay Amritraj, said.
The sports ministry backtracked on plans to ditch the passport rule that has blocked Prakash Amritraj’s return to Davis Cup action, the player’s father, Vijay Amritraj, said.
Vijay said the AITA had asked him to speak to the ministry to help with negotiations. “They said they don’t see any reason why Prakash can't play. So I said ‘fantastic, thanks very much.’” Vijay said in Singapore.
“They wrote a letter saying they had no objection that Prakash is selected because it is the prerogative of the federation so they were going to pick him to play. Then six hours later, they faxed a letter over and they said we stick to the same (passport) policy.
“It’s unfair to someone's career. It is not Prakash's choice that he was born in LA, his idiot father had to move over there for whatever reason.” The secretary of the ministry confirmed the conversation. “It's not correct to say we backtracked. I did speak to him and at that point I said the ministry had no role in the selection,” PK Deb said.
“But when we went through the legal situation we found there was no option to allow anybody who doesn't hold an Indian passport to represent the country.”
