Prajwal Hegde/TNN

Bangalore, Mar 27: Tennis Australia has written to the International Tennis Federation asking for the Davis Cup tie, to be played in Chennai from May 8 to 10, to be moved out of India for security reasons.

In a communication with TOI, the ITF’s communications officer Nick Imison confirmed that Tennis Australia had indeed written to the ITF asking for the Asia-Oceania Group I third round tie to be moved. The ITF on its part had sent out a questionnaire to the All India Tennis Association last week. The AITA answered the questionnaire and returned it to the ITF late on Monday.

"I’m quite sure everything will be OK and we can hold the tie in India," Col Chauhan, executive director of the AITA, said. "I personally went to Chennai to oversee everything. In January we had the Chennai ATP event there. It was held after 26/11 and it was very successful. We’ll be using the same stadium, the same hotel, and the same security agency for the Davis Cup tie too. We’ve also got government support. That’s the reason we chose Chennai over the other venues. It’s absolutely safe."

The ITF confirmed the receipt of the Indian federation’s reply.

"Irrespective of whether a security issue is raised or not, our security advisors look into security aspects of every single Davis Cup tie. We will proceed on those lines. Security is of utmost importance. Our security advisors will look into the issue and get back to us in a week’s time," Imison said.

If a tie is moved out of a particular country for security reasons, the tie in all likelihood will be played in the rival country. In India’s case it will be Australia. If India is asked to forfeit this chance they’ll be given choice of surface the next two times the countries meet.

"The Davis Cup is played on a home and away basis and there’s little sense in playing it on a neutral venue because there’ll be little or no spectator interest. That is talking about it in a broad and general sense. As far as the ITF is concerned, as of now, the tie is being staged in India. Only after our security advisors get back to us will we know if there are security issues to be dealt with," Imison said.

Security concerns about playing in India were first raised by Australia’s No. 1 player Lleyton Hewitt, who was quoted by Australian media as saying, "I think everyone’s probably got concerns, probably more so after what happened in Pakistan to the Sri Lankan cricket team."

The fact that the matches would be played during general elections in the country and that the IPL was moved out due to security over the issue is not lost on the Australians.

It must be said, however, that providing security for a smaller group of players, as in two Davis Cup teams, is surely easier and very different from protecting IPL.