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LAHORE: The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) is going to launch a bid for the next year’s Fed Cup in the upcoming International Tennis Federation (ITF) meeting which would be held in September in Hong Kong.

“The PTF has decided to launch a brisk campaign to get the Fed Cup-2012 Asia Oceania Zone tie by pleading the case strongly to convince the ITF that if it will not come forward to help us in organising international events the game will die in Pakistan in near future,” acting PTF president Irshad Bhatti told Dawn in an exclusive talk on Monday.

We will ensure full security to all the member countries to support our bid as the PTF anxiously desires to host international events in the country,” Irshad maintained.

He stated that he was hopeful that the international tennis community will lend a helping hand to the PTF to revive the game in Pakistan as the federation is ready to remove all their concerns about security.

About 19 countries of the Asia Oceania Zone, including 11 of Group I and eight of Group II, are taking part in the Fed Cup Asia Oceania Zone.

The acting president said that recently the PTF has organised the Aisam-ul-Haq Cup in Islamabad successfully besides having two foreign coaches in the country that proves that the security situation in Pakistan is not alarming.

Some Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi players had expressed their desire to play in the Aisam-ul-Haq Cup, but as it was not an international event the PTF refused to give them entry, he argued.

However, he added that from next year Aisam-ul-Haq Cup would be an international event with invitation to as foreign players.

Irshad remarked that the PTF would also request the ITF to allocate some ranking tournaments to provide an opportunity to Pakistani players to play with international players besides fully utilising the infrastructure available to them.

Answering a question, he claimed the PTF was in a position to raise Rs5m through sponsorship to host the Fed Cup, adding that the PTF would also request the ITF to help it in organising tennis seminars and international courses.

Due to lack of international tennis activities in Pakistan, the game is faced with a great challenge and if the ITF does not come forward no one would be able to control the damage done to the game, Irshad admitted.