‘New Zealand captain, referee at fault’

Pakistan’s non-playing captain Khalid hopeful of ITF decision.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s non-playing captain at the Davis Cup Khalid Siddiq has blamed the New Zealand captain and the Sri Lankan referee for the fiasco that caused his country’s exit from the Asia-Oceania Group II event.

The referee awarded the tie to New Zealand after ‘unplayable conditions’ on the grass courts in Myanmar meant that Pakistan had to forfeit despite leading the fixture 1-0.

The decision was met with great hostility by the Pakistan management that lodged a complaint against the referee besides filing an appeal with the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

While the ITF said it would review the appeal, Siddiq came down hard on referee Asitha Attygalla.



“When we protested, the ITF asked Attygalla to shift the tie to hard courts,” Siddiq told The Express Tribune. “Since I was the non-playing captain, I was talking to the referee constantly, and after he awarded the tie our players went berserk.

“It seemed the referee had made up his mind about what he was going to do. Attygalla was inexperienced as well. He came to me two days before the tie to understand the nature of the game played on grass courts. During the tie, he asked me to talk to the New Zealand captain Alistair Hunt, who just blatantly refused to continue the tie.”

Siddiq said that the referee’s argument about a three-inch patch on the ground was invalid, as the grass courts tended to wear off during matches in all international tournaments.

“The entire idea of holding a home-tie is to prepare the surface according to our needs. It was our right. I’m hopeful that the ITF would decide in our favour after considering our appeal for a rematch. The patch that became a problem was also outside the baseline, so we have a very strong case here.”

Meanwhile, according to the Davis Cup committee head Justine Albert, the committee will have a clearer picture in a week’s time.

“The Davis Cup committee will review the appeal and it will take at least a week,” said Albert. “We’ve received the appeal. It might take months but at the moment we really don’t know.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2013.