NEW DELHI: The All India Tennis Association on Thursday insisted that the replacement of the panel of coaches for the Commonwealth Games programme was necessitated by the shifting of one of the training centres and had nothing to do with the controversy regarding the appointments.
AITA boss Anil Khanna said the replacement of coaches had nothing to do with the controversy, which erupted because of the credentials of earlier panel of coaches, but was due to the fact that one of the training centre was shifted to Pune.
"Now that training centre (for CWG hopefuls) will be in Pune, we have got three Pune based coaches. Nitin, Radhika and Nandan are from there. So it was better to have people from Pune," Khanna said.
"There was no controversy. It was just a paper controversy. This has nothing do with that."
Earlier, National Tennis Academy in Gurgaon was marked as a training centre for the Commonwealth Games hopefuls along with DLTA complex in New Delhi.
However, the appointment of Vishal Uppal as chief coach with Nar Singh, Arun Kumar, Kawaljeet Singh, Sukhbir Singh and Shalini Thakur as other coaches had raised many eyebrows.
Even the Sports Ministry had initiated an enquiry into the selection process and yesterday at a meeting between Ministry steering committee and AITA officials, a new panel was formed.
Now former Davis Cupper Jaideep Mukherjea has been made the head coach and big names like Nandan Bal, Enrico Piperno have been involved and former Davis Cupper Nitin Kirtane and former Fed Cupper Radhika Tulpule were also roped in.
AITA had said that lack of money was the main reason for picking the earlier panel, which they had described as a stop-gap arrangement.
Khanna said they have made it clear to the Ministry that more money is required for high level coaches.
"We have spoken to the steering the committee and the issue of salary for coaches was also discussed. They do recognise that tennis needs are different from other sport. They have told us they would come back on this very soon," Khanna said.
One being asked if the Ministry does not agree to release the desired funds then will AITA once again change the panel of coaches, Khanna said, " I do not see that happening."
Khanna also said Nandan Bal and Enrico Piperno will not be working full time for the project.
"They will work in sessions. Whenever a camp for the selected players will be called they will come. So, they will be coming for a limited period," he said.
