MADRAS: Vijay Amritraj, former India Davis Cup captain, has said that the All India Tennis Association’s (AITA) show cause notice to him was unjustified.

AITA served a show cause notice on April 1st charging Amritraj of lowering the nation’s and the association’s image in the recent past through press statements.

The former Indian ace says he is not interested in ‘mudslinging’ in his dealings with R.K. Khanna, secretary of the All India Tennis Association (AITA).

Vijay Amritraj told PTI on phone from Los Angeles: “I was shocked and distressed to read in the papers in London and United States the stand taken by the AITA in Chandigarh against me.”

He said the whole AITA statement “is totally exaggerated, misrepresented and false. It is also laughable and surely makes good reading to keep his (Khanna’s) AITA being in the news.”

Vijay said having served India in Davis Cup for almost 20 years played in 16 consecutive Wimbledon tournaments represented India in Olympic games, being the only Asian to have won the United Nations play award and having received the international federation’s award for service to the game, “AITA officials is to use their mouth at which they seem to be good at.”

The present AITA could not probably relish the five year old fully professional nonprofit tennis programme (Britannia Amritraj trust) in Asia, which has started producing Davis cup players,

Article extracted from this publication >> April 13, 1990