PUNE: All India Tennis Association secretary general Anil Dhupar on Tuesday sought to justify the removal of Vishaal Uppal as captain of the Indian women’s team for the Billie Jean King Cup with a strange argument: “no reason”. “There is no reason. We have not removed him (Uppal as captain). Everybody should get a chance,” Dhupar said.
AITA on Monday announced the Indian team for the BJK Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 competition, to be held in Uzbekistan next month.
It also announced the decision to promote former India player and coach Shalini Thakur in Uppal’s place, which caught many off guard since the latter had during his tenure helped the team gain promotion to World Group Qualifying stage for the first time ever. Adding intrigue to the development was AITA honorary joint secretary Suman Kapur alleging that Dhupar did not follow the established norm of discussing the change of captaincy in the Executive Committee.
“Vishal was appointed captain by the AITA Executive Committee . . . He has been responsible for keeping India in Group 1 and has the unique distinction of having taken India to the World Group Qualifying . . The news of his sudden replacement without discussion within the AITA Executive Committee has come as a big surprise,” Kapur wrote to AITA vice president (s ports) Hironmoy Chatterjee.
Dhupar said he had informed Kapur about the change but offered no explanation as to what prompted it. “Is this such a big thing? Captains keep coming and going. Vishal has been the captain for five years, he has done a good job and we are grateful to him.”
For the record, Uppal took charge of the women’s team in 2019. A source in the AITA corroborated Kapur’s statement that the office-bearers were in the dark about Uppal’s sacking. Uppal said he was informed of the decision by Dhupar only on Tuesday.
“I wish the team all the very best. My job is to perform, and the results speak for my performance,” the former Davis Cupper said.