Vijay Amritraj: Politics is always going to trump sports
After its foray into football and golf, Saudi Arabia’s tennis ambitions have become one of the biggest talking points in the world of sport.
The country successfully hosted the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah last year and will continue to do so till 2027, as per the contract. It has also shown interest in hosting the WTA Finals.
Saudi has been accused of using sportswashing to hide issues such as gender discrimination and homosexuality.
In such a scenario, the debate on whether tennis should make a move and take the top-tier events to the Middle East, continues. Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj feels Saudi’s interest cannot be simply ignored.
“There has been a huge push by Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert not to allow women’s tennis to go to Saudi. It’s their viewpoint and there are several ways to look at it,” said the 70-year-old on the sidelines of an event at the Madras Cricket Club on Monday, celebrating the 50th anniversary of India reaching the Davis Cup Final for the first time in the Open era in 1974.
“When you look at someone committing a ton of money to sports and a portion of that money can go for the development of juniors in various countries, you have to give it a second look because the kids that are coming along, if they are going to miss out on all of that support, we’ll be doing a disservice.”
“But let us keep in mind where the world needs to go and how far we are willing to push that to the next generation. It’s a very fine line,” he added.
Resolving conflict and tennis
In 1989, Vijay, the then ATP Chairman, was in a spot regarding the future of two ATP events in Johannesburg and Cape Town in a country maligned with apartheid.
The 10-member council told the South African government that they would wait for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, lifting the segregation policies and implementing the “one person, one vote” principle.
Till then, the two tournaments were frozen, but the vacant space on the calendar was not allotted to other cities. In 1992, the South African Open was back on tour.
The 1974 Davis Cup final that never happened
Vijay, his elder brother Anand, Jasjit Singh and Sashi Menon, along with Ramanathan Krishnan, the non-playing captain, had created history by beating giants like Australia and the Soviet Union to reach the summit clash of the ‘World Cup of Tennis” in 1974.
However, their opponent for the final was South Africa, and in protest against the apartheid policies, India decided to forfeit the match.
Even after 50 years, Anand and Vijay both have different takes on whether it was the right call to not play against South Africa.
“I don’t think it was the right decision (not to play) because what would be better than two non-white boys from a country that people never thought of to ever be in a Davis Cup final to go to South Africa and beat them in Ellis Park, which is in Johannesburg, where they were going to play the match,” said Anand, who came back from two-sets-to-one down to beat the Soviet Union’s Teimuraz Kakulia and sealed India’s place in the final.
“We had a good chance of winning 4-1 or 3-2, and it was a shame we didn’t get that opportunity because we would have liked to have that huge Davis Cup trophy here at the MCC.”
Vijay, on the other hand, puts forward the perspective of the bigger picture.
“As an athlete, we were disappointed because what are we playing for? We’re playing to win, and this was an opportunity to put India’s name on the Davis Cup for the first time but as human beings, we were trying to change the system that the rest of the world took for granted,” he said.
“Politics is always going to trump sports because it is ahead and we have to look at the global picture, but sport, I believe, can bring countries together.”