AITA ponders code of conduct

“I was told about these issues on February 10, the last day of the tie, but I didn’t want to be hurried into resolving the matter. I had thought May would be a good time — there are two Challengers in Delhi, and the players would be here for two weeks. But we have to look into the matter now. I think we will arrive at a decision by the end of next week,” said Khanna.

“It’s not something that can be decided upon in 10 minutes. But I don’t believe this affects how the Japan tie will turn out. Once the players are out on the tennis court, all they see is the ball,” he added.

Khanna is now attempting to put a mechanism into place whereby a similar mess will be avoided in the future. He says a Code of Conduct regarding how players air their opinions may be set in place to avoid a repeat. “We will be putting into place such a code, and it will be in consultation with the players. We won’t be telling them that they shouldn’t talk to the press at all, but just that they shouldn’t talk about each other. Things have been blown out of proportion, and it could’ve been avoided.

“The Wednesday before the tie, Paes had come to me and said he wasn’t sure about Prakash’s fitness, and he outlined the plan he had. He would save Prakash for the last day, since it could be crucial, and he would have recovered completely by Sunday. And it made perfect sense to me; it seemed very logical,” Khanna said.

“First Prakash spoke up; then Leander had his say. Maybe Paes should have handled the whole thing in a more mature manner. But the two players in question had already said what they had to on the matter, so why did Bhupathi have to add to it by commenting on the party they went to? The players should stick to talking about their own matches and themselves. Leander and Mahesh shouldn’t comment on each other and what they think.”

Khanna said work on the code will start soon and something concrete should be in place by the end of April.