New Delhi, July 10 : Tennis star Sania Mirza's mother Naseema is among the five support staff who will be assisting the Indian tennis team at the Olympics, The Indian Express reported.
Naseema is the only one of the five support staff with no real expertise or specialization in the field, the report said.
The report said, this appears to be part of a move to appease Sania, who had issued a harshly worded statement after she was paired with Leander Paes in the mixed doubles at London.
Though the support staff were selected a couple of days back, the AITA has kept the list under wraps.
Besides Naseema, the others accompanying the team will be India's regular Davis Cup non-playing captain S P Misra, Sanjay Singh (Paes's trainer), Shayamal Vallabhjee (Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna's training consultant) and Milos Galecic (Somdev Devvarman's physio).
There also appears to be ambiguity over Sania's mother's role.
“She will be the women's team coach,” Col Ranbir Chauhan, member of the AITA executive committee, told The Indian Express.
Subsequently, he changed tack: “She will be the team manager as she has been in past. She is of great help to the women's team because she has experience of going to these big tennis events.
In the list that has gone to the Indian Olympic Association, Naseema and Mishra are named as mere “officials”.
While the two of them, along with Somdev's trainer, will stay at the Olympics Village, the support staff for the men's doubles team will stay outside.
Interestingly, those with more experience like present Davis Cup coach Nandan Bal and Fed Cup coach Enrico Piperno were not considered for the job.
Sania's father Imran said they didn't ask for Naseema to be included.
“The AITA has requested her to travel to London. She has been accompanying the Fed Cup teams and was there for Asian Games and the last Olympics at Beijing. She has a vast experience of how these events function because she is someone who has gone to about 10 Wimbledons and a total of 25 Grand Slams,” Imran said.
Though both the federation and Sania's family maintain Naseema has always been travelling in the capacity of the women's team manager, the fact is that she accompanies the team only when Sania is playing.
