Indian tennis stars to play in CWG with full strength

Published>Sat, Aug 21 10 07:52 PM

New Delhi, Aug 21 (ANI): Top Indian tennis stars Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devvarman have jointly issued a press statement saying they will play in full strength for India in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

An earlier report that made headlines on Friday said that they would pull out of the event over non-payment of dues by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Central Government.

They said they took the decision to play to end all speculation about their non-paticipation.

"It is true that we wrote a letter to the AITA to voice some concerns we had about expenses that we were promised over the last year and a half, We have all submitted bills to various people at the AITA over this period, and now that the AITA has nominated us to represent India we requested them to make sure that the promises made are kept," said a statement iossued by the tennis players.

"We would like to put all speculation to rest and confirm we will be present in full strength to represent India against Brazil in Chennai in September. As for the CWG, it has promised to make payments on time," the statement added.

It was reported on Friday that the top tennis stars had written to the All India Tennis Association saying they don't have the time to run around, and are therefore, authorising the AITA to deal with the issue of non-payment of dues on their behalf.

They had sent an ultimatum to the All India Tennis Association after dues of over two crore rupees were unpaid for the past two years.

The Commonwealth Games 2010 is India's biggest sporting event since the 1982 Asian Games.

India is expecting about two million tourists in New Delhi for the Games, as well as about 10,000 athletes from 71 teams representing 54 Commonwealth member states. (ANI)

Source: Web Search