It seems like Indian tennis has been hit with a bout of collective insanity.
If the run-up to the tie against Japan wasn't strained enough the end was a complete mockery.
All the four players in the team -- Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi -- did their bits to seal the tie by the second day to register India's most emphatic win for a long time. But it wasn't complete without some unpleasant drama.
Paes, already sharing cold vibes with his three teammates, shot the first fire when he dug up uncomfortable details of his rocky relationship with Bhupathi on the eve of the tie. Even if the interview, as Paes claimed, was misinterpreted there was enough one-upmanship and the timing couldn't be worse.
For their part, the opposing camp, pressing for Paes' ouster from the helm, did their own folly when India's top singles players Bopanna and Amritraj pulled out under murky circumstances.
The official line was that both had aggravated their knee and wrist injuries respectively but the undercurrents in the team and during the tie could not be ignored. Even if they were only protecting themselves from further injury, playing for India should be treated as a privilege and not an option.
And this, only two days after they had emerged unlikely winners over their higher-ranked Japanese opponents under oppressive conditions.
The way the drama has unfolded, with the blue jersey put as a show pony even as the players continue to do their own thing, it has all started to look a little too silly for a Davis Cup stage.
Paes and Bhupathi, who has sealed the tie India's way by winning the doubles on Saturday, did come out and complete the formality of finishing it because conceding would be showing "disrespect" to the whole event and their opponents.
The problems between the ace Indian duo is a thing of old, and their criticisms are no longer taken seriously, but they share the blame in blowing it into a national crisis and passing on the rift to the new generation.
The All India Tennis Association is still looking into the matter and may act only after Beijing. They need to step in and stem the rut.
Paes rightly said in the press conference after the match, "All of us will be gone, but the Indian Davis Cup team will remain." As India's most celebrated Davis Cup hero and the current captain, he needs to make sure that the virtues and not the fallacies are passed on.
