The International Tennis Federation has finally lifted the ban it had imposed on the Bangladesh Tennis Federation earlier this year, a senior official of the BTF said on Sunday.
Bangladesh has been hosting the ITF Junior Tennis for the last 24 years in Dhaka and gradually expanded it to Rajshahi and BKSP before the ITF suspended the tournaments of Dhaka and Rajshahi earlier this year.
The ITF also relegated the BKSP meet to grade 4 from grade 3 as a punishment for not giving visa to an Israeli participant and fined the BTF $2,500.
The last ITF tournament was held in Dhaka in February this year where an Israeli player, who wished to play in all three tournaments, could not take part after he was denied a visa.
Under the new ITF rule, implemented in 2010, any player can buy a token for $20 and he or she can make an entry into his or her preferred tournaments on the ITF website.
The Israeli player, who chose to play in Bangladesh, intended to fly to Dhaka but he failed to obtain the visa as Bangladesh has no diplomatic relation with Israel. The ITF after being informed about the incident fined the BTF $5,000 and suspended the two tournaments of Dhaka and Rajshahi and downgraded the BKSP meet.
The BTF, however, wrote to the ITF to reconsider the decision and the ruling body of world tennis reduced the fine to $2,500 from $5,000 but upheld the suspension of the two meets.
Nevertheless, the BTF had to pay the fine but they got the permission to organise all three under-18 competitions again much to the relief of the Bangladesh’s tennis fans.
‘We went to the ITF headquarters to discuss the issue and explained to them that it was not our federation’s fault,’ said a relieved vice-president of the tennis federation, Mohammad Ali Deen.
‘If our nation does not have any diplomatic relation with another country we have nothing much to do. They realised our problem and withdrew the ban,’ he said.
The general secretary disclosed the good news that in addition to the junior tournaments Bangladesh is going to host the Davis Cup in April next year. The BTF had organised the international event for the last time in 2008.
