Jaidip Mukerjea and Akhtar Ali are not about to agree that top players are involved in match-fixing, but the two Davis Cuppers have heard or seen enough to smell a rat or two in tennis
Akhtar Ali
Kolkata: Jaidip Mukerjea and Akhtar Ali are not about to agree that top players are involved in match-fixing, but the two Davis Cuppers have heard or seen enough to smell a rat or two in tennis.
Akhtar Ali
"I've heard of Futures matches being lost on purpose, but since I haven't seen one such match myself, I'll reserve my comments on that," Jaidip told mid-day in the wake of reports of widespread corruption in the sport. "But, then, why would top players risk so much for money when they make so much of it anyway?" added the former Davis Cup captain.
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Akhtar echoed similar thoughts. "They earn so much," he pointed out. "I have been going to Wimbledon for 40 years, five years as a player, but I've never seen or heard anything that would suggest such wrong-doing," the 76-year-old reminded, but is quick to draw attention towards the menace of "tanking matches".
"Most tournaments offer appearance money to top players and, often, some of them lose their matches deliberately. Sometimes, they hide injuries and and are not good enough to win first-round matches. These players appear only to collect their hefty guarantee fees," Akhtar said.
"This has happened even at the Chennai Open," he added even as he refused to believe there is "tanking" in tennis at the behest of bookmakers. "Sometimes, it's as simple as a higher-ranked player not being good enough on a particular surface," he reminded.
Jaidip, who spoke about his "shock on hearing the reports", feels they are ill-times. "The first Grand Slam of the season has just begun and this will distract the players focus," the 73-year-old reminded. "There should be a thorough investigation and if anything emerges, some exemplary punishments like life bans, should be used to nip the menace in the bud."
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