Visiting Indian tennis coach Beerbal Vadhera has been barred by the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) from travelling to Lahore and Karachi due to security concerns, specifically after Karachi airbase attack, Dawn has learnt reliably.
The Indian coach is currently on a month-long tour and training the second tier, comprising mostly young male and female players.
The Indian coach is currently on a month-long tour and training the second tier, comprising mostly young male and female players.
“The Indian coach is not travelling to Lahore and Karachi because of the fragile law and order situation,” PTF senior vice-president Irshad Bhatti told Dawn.
Beerbal had travelled to Pakistan ignoring the security concerns and had maintained in his several statements that he had travelled to Pakistan for the “love of the game” and “if he dies here he will die for the sport”.
“The ongoing training camp managed by the Indian coach will be closed on May 28 and will again resume at the same venue as players from Lahore and Karachi will also be trained here,” said the key official of the federation.
According to the itinerary of the Indian coach shared by a tennis federation official on his arrival, he [Beerbal] was supposed to travel to Lahore and Karachi by May 30 and was scheduled to train several hundred players at some local tennis academies in the two cities.
Bhatti when asked to comment over the level of security provided to the Indian coach he refused to say anything, citing that the “matter is confidential.”
While commenting over the Davis Cup team, he said: “Davis Cup team is not finalised yet. Eight players will first feature in an event and later the top two will be sent to the mega event.”
Bhatti said every player has to prove fitness for international fixtures.
He informed that Samir Iftikhar was currently in Britain while Yasir Khan has recently lost a semi-final match in Sargodha Tennis Cup
news covered by dawn sports
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