The face of Indian tennis for over a decade, an Olympic bronze medal winner, and one of the finest doubles players of all time gets a cold shoulder from his colleagues, who have barely cut into big-time tennis, let alone make a mark.

This has forced Leander Paes to quit captaincy of the Indian Davis Cup team. With the World Group play-off tie against Romania just a few days away, things are not looking very bright for India.

National selector and former India Davis Cup coach Akhtar Ali has no hesitation in saying that the treatment given to Paes by some of his teammates was “not fair”.

“Players with very little experience at the top level are criticising someone whose contribution to Indian tennis is legendary. Leander had a talk with me. He didn’t want to go through that embarrassment once again and decided to step down,” Ali told The Indian Express.

The veteran coach cited the example of Vijay Amritraj and the Krishnans (Ramnathan Ramesh) and described how they had handled their differences of opinion with maturity.

“There was a time when the Amritrajs and the Krishnans did not see eye-to-eye. As the then India coach, I saw it from close quarters. But they didn’t make the spat public.”

But why didn’t the All India Tennis Association (AITA) clamp down on those who transgressed? “See, our resource is limited. We didn’t have a big pool to choose from. Still, the AITA had given the players an ultimatum. But Leander chose to quit in the interest of Indian tennis,” Ali replied.

The AITA has appointed SP Misra, a nondescript former Davis Cup player as the non-playing captain for the tie against Romania. But will he be able to handle the big egos and at the same time plan strategies for clay? “Lots of people were interested for the post. Some very big names. We have given him the job to avoid controversy. Romania would be a very tough proposition on clay, whoever is the captain.”

Ali doesn’t think that Paes’ decision will affect the outcome of the tie. “In any case, Leander will play only in the doubles. Knowing him, his intensity won’t drop.”

Ex-India captain Jaidip Mukherjea, on the other hand, believes that things wouldn’t have come to such a crisis had Paes been there as a non-playing captain.