Amritraj plays down controversy

Chennai: Former India Davis cup captain, Vijay Amritraj apparently adopted diplomacy as he today played down the controversy surrounding his absence at the draw ceremony of the ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament here last evening.

The legendary Indian tennis player, however, confirmed that he was not invited for the ceremony yesterday, which had generated a strong media interest. The 56-year old Amritraj, who resides close to the tennis stadium here, held a press conference at the park bay of the stadium this afternoon, and spoke about his involvement with the tournament and its success story.Amritraj said, “In many peoples eyes, I would be a mascot of this event since I was responsible in its success all these years. Even now, I consider myself lucky to be associated with this tournament for so long and take pride in the fact that it has been a great success.”“Obviously, I was not invited by the Organising committee for the draw. I do not expect to be. I was there in the tournament more as a face of the tournament and it helped. May be, a lot of things I do does not help,” he said. Later, Organising Committee Chairman Karti Chidambaram, clarified his remark to a newspaper yesterday that “I respect A B Vajpayee who is a tall politician and I also respect Vijay Amritraj.” PTI