The officials of the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) are themselves to blame for losing the hosting rights of the upcoming Davis Cup tie despite the willingness of the competing team and the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The sources in the PTF confided to this scribe that the officials of PTF could not pursue the case in time after ITF decided to organise the Pakistan’s Davis Cup tie against Lebanon in Pakistan and asked the federation to send them the details about security arrangements. According to documents made available to Pakistan Today, the ITf Davis Cup committee, in August in Bangkok, agreed in principal to organise the first tie of 2012 in Pakistan and asked the PTF to send them the details of security arrangements and venue by November 1. The ITF also sent a security questionare to PTF for a detailed reply to confirm that how Pakistan will make the event risk free. But the PTF could only go back to the ITF on October 26 and that too without completion of the questionare and mentioning the details of the venue. The ITF sent a reminder to PTF after November 1 (after the expiry of the deadline to submit the details) and told them to send the plans about security and venue arrangement as urgent as possible. But despite the urgency by the ITF, the PTF went back to them on November 14 when the security consultant of the international body had already submitted a negative report about Pakistan. The sources said that President PTF Kaleem Imam and the Patron Dilawar Abbas had finalized Lahore Defence Club as the venue.
