India draws Pak for away tie in Sept, may be played at neutral venue

Nagpur: The Indian Davis Cup team was on Wednesday drawn to meet Pakistan in away tie, which could well be shifted to a neutral venue provided the Central government sticks to its current policy of not allowing sporting teams to travel to the neighbouring country.

No Indian Davis Cup squad has travelled to Pakistan since March 1964 and in that tie, held in Lahore, India had won 4-0.

The draw for the tie, which will be held in September this year took place in London. The winner will move to the World Group Qualifiers.

The Indian cricket team has also not been allowed by the government to travel to Pakistan for any bilateral contest. The PCB had filed a compensation case with ICC tribunal but eventually lost to BCCI. The All India Tennis Association (AITA) said it will approach the government to know if the team will be allowed to travel.

"AITA does not have a choice. We have to follow the government policy. We will speak to the government to know. They have not allowed any sports team to travel to Pakistan," AITA Secretary General Hironmoy Chatterjee said.

Pakistan had hosted Uzbekistan and Korea last year in Islamabad on grass courts.

It's an away tie for India since the last tie between the two nations was played in Mumbai in 2006, which India won 3-2. Current non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi was part of that team, which also had legendary Leander Paes, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna.