Let ITF decide on whether India will play Pakistan or not in Davis Cup: Hironmoy Chatterjee

New Delhi [India], Aug 8 (ANI): After Pakistan's decision of downgrading diplomatic ties with India, All India Tennis Association (AITA) Secretary-General Hironmoy Chatterjee on Thursday said International Tennis Federation (ITF) will decide on whether India will play against Pakistan or not in their Davis Cup tie.
"Idea is, for ITF to see the situation is conducive or not. Let the ITF decide on the situation primarily, if they find the situation is very sensitive as Pakistan have severed all diplomatic ties with India, then they will not issue a visa. If they do not issue the visa, so how would we go there. In that case, Pakistan will get penalised and the tie will get shifted to a neutral venue," Chatterjee told ANI.
The Indian team is scheduled to travel Pakistan for the first time in 55 years to participate in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-1 tie at Islamabad on September 14 and 15.
Chatterjee said that if India opts out of playing against Pakistan, it will invite penalty. He added that if Pakistan does not issue visas to the players they will be unable to travel.
"We don't want to be in a situation where we will say that we don't want to go. It is too early to say anything, the situation has become a bit tense after the scrapping of Article 370. We are going to go through the process," Chatterjee said.
Chatterjee added that the AITA is gathering information from the players for the visa application of Pakistan.
"Regarding this, we did not have any meeting, we need to put in an application and we are gathering the information for the application of visa as the players are playing in different competitions around the world," Chatterjee said.
Earlier this week, India abrogated Article 370 which accorded a special status to Jammu and Kashmir after a resolution regarding the same was passed in both houses of the Parliament.
The Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill 2019 was also passed which converted Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without legislature). (ANI)