Paes` remarks are baseless, says Jaidip Mukerjea

Kolkata: Former Davis Cup captain Jaidip Mukerjea today said that Leander Paes` reported remarks that a section of the Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) was trying to break the AITA was untrue and baseless.

Asserting that all the players were working together in the players` body, the ITPA president said they had no dispute with the AITA. "We at the ITPA have one agenda - to promote tennis in India, we are not here to break the AITA. I do not know whom Paes is referring to but I can assure that from Mahesh Bhupathi to Sania Mirza, everybody at the ITPA are together," Mukerjea told PTI. "He (Paes) himself is one of the vice presidents of ITPA. But he`s not fully involved compared to others like Bhupathi," he added. Charting out the agenda of ITPA, Mukerjea said, "We (ITPA) are to help juniors as well as to support former players who are not financially stable. "We are here to help the AITA out. We do not have any dispute with them. We are not going to interfere in selections and all that. That is up to the selection committee. If they ask for our help, we are always there," the 71-year-old said. Paes has been reported as saying that he was "caught between an association and the boys having their own motives". "I do not want to be in a situation where I want to overthrow an association. I do not want to play politics... I am not with the group of boys who are trying to do that at least one section of the group is trying to do that and I don`t want to be with that section," Paes had remarked in a newspaper interview.