Tennis goes the IPL way, serves ace with ITL

New Delhi: The big question for Indian sport — can cricket's success story especially after the IPL — be translated into other sporting arenas too?

Over the last few weeks, the IPL has quite literally been the opium of the masses, and encouraged by its staggering success, sports administrators are putting together plans for a similar explosion.

The All India Tennis Association has the blueprint ready for the Indian Tennis League, or the ITL.

"What we are really wanting to do is to attract people to tennis in terms of viewership, in terms of getting associated with the game and coming out with an absolutely new product," reveals Anil Khanna, the General Secretary of the All India Tennis Association.

The format is quite modelled on the World Team Tennis played in the United States.

• Like the IPL this is also a city-based tournament
• Six cities have been chosen (Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata) out of which four will be shortlisted
• Each team/city will have two foreign players — one male and one female former Grand Slam winner, two Indian players and four players from the Under-18 category (two boys and two girls)
• Each tie between teams will consist of seven matches — four singles, two doubles and one mixed doubles
• The tournament will be a week long affair with the winner being decided on the maximum number of ties won

The tournament is scheduled to be launched in November this year. The All India Tennis Association has little time and much to do, but they know exactly who to get tips from.

"Maybe the AITA would like to call on the BCCI authorities who have done this work and take their guidance and their help, because I'm sure they are looking forward to helping other sports as well. And I would love to take the advice of a person like Mr Lalit Modi as to how we should go about it," Anil Khanna adds.

With former legends like Jimmy Connors, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Goran Ivanesevic all likely to make ITL a very attractive venture, no-one would benefit more than the youngsters in the country.

"If it can raise a lot of revenue for the Indian players it will be very good, because anyway Indian tennis players don't get any sponsorships. If you get greats to play and gel with the younger ones and play together, it can only do good things to Indian tennis," says tennis player Vishal Uppal.

The ITL or the Indian Tennis League is something this sport in India is yet to witness. And if the AITA is successful in gathering all its resources within the next few months, then tennis lovers in India are guaranteed for some exciting times ahead.