“I’m interested in governance, not politics”: Leander Paes on running for AITA president

Leander Paes (Image credit: Instagram) It was in the summer of 1996 that Leander Paes won a historic medal at the Atlanta Olympics, ending India’s 44-year wait for an individual Olympic medal. Paes, then 23, was battling a wrist injury when he came back from a set down to defeat Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni in the bronze medal playoff.On that day, August 3, 1996, an effervescent Calcutta made history and provided the punctuation mark that ended India’s joyless run at the Games for four years.Thirty years later, he is looking for another winner. While vying for the office of president of the All India Tennis Association, whose elections are due later this year, Paes wants to change the sports body, which has been in the news for truancy.In New York at the US Open, he spoke to TOI about his plans and goals for Indian tennis.excerpts…When did you decide to run? FATHER presidency?I have always been interested in talking about improving Indian tennis, focusing on better access for players, access to tournaments and professional coaching, building grassroots programs, developing infrastructure across states. I have seriously thought about reciprocal programs using my profile and identity throughout the tennis world to allow our players to become familiar with the coaching systems in countries that have already laid the groundwork.It occurred to me that I have noticed a trend, if you can call it that, over the last 15-20 years. It has been our tradition to win Grand Slams, four of us have won Grand Slams in India – Sania (Mirza), Mahesh (Bhupathi), Rohan (Bopanna) and me. Between us, India has won 38 Grand Slam titles and also held the number one spot in doubles. Besides, Somdev Devvarman, Sania and now Sumit Nagal are doing inspiring things in singles, giving us great results at Tour-level, Olympics, Davis and Billie Jean King cups, but as far as I can see, these results have not been maximized in the last few decades.We had success, so I ask what we did with it? Did we take advantage of it? I feel strongly that the players have not been supported, neither those who have achieved results nor those who are now trying to carve out a career.Why did you jump into the race?Over the years, in the last decade or so, I have been approached by various people, be it players, supporters of Indian tennis or officials of state associations, saying why don’t you do something for tennis in India? The most talked about was financial transparency, or unfortunately the complete lack of it.When I played tennis, I focused on my career. I spent most of the last eight years taking care of my parents, who both died in the last year. Something like this takes time, it takes a personal investment.So in addition to wanting to introduce a professional system to tennis, grassroots programs, access to all, a clear and clean development path, all transparently, where everything is open and known to all, I want to put the player at the center of tennis. At the end of the day, results speak louder than anything else.I am happy to use my personal capital, my name, to attract corporate and government investment to move this dream forward for all tennis lovers.Have you ever talked to your father, Dr. Vece Paes, about running tennis in the country?Dad and I had many conversations about sports governance in India, especially the AITA. Every time we’ve had these conversations, he said, you’re in a tough spot. His argument was, if you don’t take that attitude, how can you make a difference? But if you take that position, all your friends, all those who respect and love you for all that you’ve achieved and stood for, will wonder… Also, the moment you take that position, everything you’ve achieved can fade into the background and all the trophies and medals you’ve worked hard for will cease to matter because this is a different race and you may ask yourself, for what purpose?But he always said that when you get there, you have to run it like a pro, just like you played the sport. Most importantly, you have to put together the best team and you have to get the players involved.You have to make AITA a professional organization, you have to start by professionalizing it, state after state. To help the game grow, it is not possible to join the development.I have a lot of respect for all our teammates who fought, worked hard and spent their own money or their family’s money to stay on the tour, to pay for the hotel, to pay for the plane tickets, to pay for the coaching. Some of them travel with companions or partners, but most of our singles and doubles players do it all with zero support.What is your vision for tennis in India for the next 10 years?I am looking at circular growth while building a business plan for tennis. This sport is played all year round, i.e. almost all over the world. I want India to have a full calendar too, men, women and juniors. In the last 10-15 years, we in Asia and those in the global fraternity have seen what China has done. In Europe you saw what Italy, Spain and France did. We need to have tournaments for players. That’s the basic rule, they shouldn’t travel abroad for most of their points.At the end of the day, we are in a system where ranking is king, depending on placement a player gets into tournaments, that is their livelihood. For someone who plays World Tennis (ITF) junior tournaments, it’s like going to school, presentation in every year of the competition is mandatory, it’s the foundation they lay on when they turn professional. I want to focus on a tournament structure that allows players to play most tournaments at home and some in Asia where it is easier to travel. This in the development stage, once the player has points, it is easier to get into the main moves.The goal is to get around 15 singles – men and women – into Grand Slams, get more teams into Grand Slam doubles and mixed doubles.Look at China today, 20 years ago people were saying that China is building these tennis schools, all these great stadiums all over the country, China is trying to invest millions and millions of dollars to develop players and get international coaching. I look at the US Open draw and see the Chinese players overboard. Much work has already been done.Another goal is to bring the AITA administration to a level where it sets the standard for other sports associations in the country. I want our past players to get involved in different levels of the game like coaching like Sania and Rohan are already doing. I dabbled in sports and event management like Mahesh and Vijay and I dabbled.Even get current players involved, so when we’re done, we can pass it on to the next generation. There has to be investment by past, present and future players, just as there has to be investment by corporate India and investment by the government.How do you plan to go about getting the players together?We will start the talks, the players have to come together and work together, this is our sport, we have to own it. Just because we had different opinions or that people live in different countries doesn’t mean he is forgotten. We have to find a way to work together and I’m willing to go along the way, I’m interested in governance, not politics.