Dubai: Vijay Amritraj, the colossus of Indian tennis, feels his brainchild Champions Tennis League (CTL) has enough firepower to carve a niche for itself among the various franchise-based leagues sweeping Indian sport at the moment.
Speaking to Gulf News from India, Amritraj said that the six-team India based league is much different in ethos from the Indian Premier Tennis League (IPTL) and is designed to provide the much-needed impetus to the next generation of tennis players in India. “It’s a tennis league for India and will provide each team’s juniors a chance to have a feel of the work ethic of some of the biggest names from close quarters like never before,” said Amritraj, who once famously formed the ‘ABC’ of tennis along with Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors in the mid ‘70s and ‘80s.
The CTL, formally launched in last July, will feature six city teams: Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune. A total of 13 matches will be played between November 17-26 with the finals scheduled in the Indian capital.
A look at the marquee names in both IPTL and CTL is a no-brainer that the former has been able to walk away with the cream of world tennis, but Amritraj says there had been a method in the madness in the way teams have been lined up in his venture.
“There is a legend in each team as the playing captain, a male or a female player with rankings between No.5 to 25, an Indian Davis Cup team member plus a top-ranked junior Indian boy and girl from each city,” he said.
The news of Spanish warrior David Ferrer’s late withdrawal due to an injury came as a big blow through for the CTL. “(David) Ferrer is a great player and to not have him come and play for his team, the Punjab Marshalls, is a big blow to both the Marshalls as well as to us at CTL,” Amritraj admitted.
“While we are set to bring a level of tennis entertainment that India has never seen before, I would consider it a job well done if it can throw up some exciting talent for India. That’s the idea behind giving a break to the junior players in each team who can see how the stars prepare for each game – right from the training regimen to eating habits,” said Amritraj, whose company Second Serve Private Limited is promoting the event along with the All India Tennis Federation (AITA).
If the comparison with the star-power of IPTL is one challenge that the new league may have to contend with, the other one is the time slot as the Mahesh Bhupathi-promoted league will kick off within two days of the CTL final. “We had a tight 10-day window soon after the ATP finals and had to work around it,” Amritraj explained.
After being the first family of Indian tennis in the post-Krishnan era, the most celebrated of Amritraj brothers (his elder brother Anand is the non-playing captain of Indian Davis Cup squad now) had started the first tennis academy of India in Chennai – where Leander Paes took his first steps in the game. “I was also responsible for bringing the first ATP stop in India with the Chennai Open nearly two decades back. There had been the occasional events in Bangalore or Mumbai, but the CTL will provide an integrated sport and entertainment format that the current generation is used to,” he observed.
The success of the first edition will determine the roadmap for the CTL, which hopes to rope in eight cities for a more well-rounded format. How long does he think the new initiative will take to break even? “It should happen by the third year,” said Amritraj.
The last year and-a-half had been an extremely eventful one for Indian sport, with football, tennis and badminton and even an kabaddi launching well-packaged franchise oriented leagues on the lines of Indian Premier League (IPL) of cricket. This is, of course, good news for someone like Amritraj – who sees it as the first step towards encouraging children to pursue sport as career in India.
“Going back in time, I would say that me and my brother were the first professional athletes in India some 30 years back. It was a risky business then as even our top cricketers would then be associated with some jobs or other. It has taken quite a few years for the concept to change for sport was considered to be high risk, high reward option by the Indian parents.
“The growth of corporate sponsorship for sport in India has played a big role in changing the landscape and now the franchise leagues will surely lead to opening up of sport as a serious career option,” Amritraj signed off.
