New Delhi, June 23: Sahara Group chairman Subroto Roy today said “nasty politics” has dented India's chances of winning a medal in tennis at the London Olympics and sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in AITA's controversial selection process.
Roy came out in support of tennis star Leander Paes, who has been forced to pair up with lower-ranked Vishnu Vardhan after AITA decided to field two teams for the London Games following Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna's unwillingness to pair up with Paes.
“A best bait of getting a medal in Olympics has been smashed due to nasty politics of some irresponsible big individuals of India,” Roy said in a statement.
“I appeal (to) our beloved Prime Minister to do justice for the country and Leander Paes and kindly punish such people who are anti-national,” he added.
Roy expressed his disappointment at the last-minute changes in the selection process by All India Tennis Association and appealed to the sports lovers to join hands and take up the issue in a big way to curb politics in sports.
“We are trying our best to get medals for the country, we are spending money for that and there are people playing politics with our medal chances,” Roy told PTI in a telephonic interview.
“It is so bad, politics is being played in sport and my request is that we should all react in a big way to such practices. There should not be any politics in sports and we strongly feel against the last-minute change of Indian tennis team,” he added.
Roy said Paes has been “sacrificed at the altar of egos, dirty politicking and unnecessary political intervention”, despite being ranked seventh in the world which “allows Leander a direct entry into the London Games and also allows him to choose his partner.”
The Sahara group chief also said that “AITA, Sports Ministry supported personal benefit at the cost of country's interest”.
