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Will he, won't he...?

So you thought we were in the middle of a communications boom.

If boom there is, then it hasn't touched the All India Tennis Association. Thus, the two leading office bearers of Indian tennis' governing body, one based in Bombay, one in Delhi, can't communicate!

Last week, AITA secretary Ramesh Desai announced, from Bombay, India's team for the key Davis Cup relegation match against Great Britain, starting September 25 in London. At the time, Desai said Leander Paes would be in the side, but that he hadn't, as yet, confirmed his participation.

"AITA picks the team for the tie, it's up to the players to inform AITA about their availability or otherwise," Desai told Rediff On The Net. "I have no confirmation about Leander, but I guess he will be playing."

The whole controversy is agitating Dr Vece Paes no end. “Where is the question of Leander not playing for the country?" he demanded. "We had said, in our letter to the AITA in April, that he wasn’t in a position to play against Italy due to injury, but that he would be available for future Cup ties, Asian Games and Olympics”.

More to the point, Dr Paes and India's non-playing captain Jaideep Mukherjee met with AITA president R K Khanna while they were all in Wimbledon last month. On that occasion, Paes Senior confirmed, to both captain and association president, that his son would be playing for the national squad.

Unfortunately Khanna, who thus was aware, a month ago, that the Indian star would definitely be in harness, has not been able to communicate the information to his association secretary.

There was a postal strike on, in India, you see...

In such haphazard ways, are the affairs of Indian tennis run.

While on Leander, an aside. The Indian star had a fall during workouts, Monday, resulting in some rib-cage pain. X-rays, however, showed no signs of lasting injury, and he is expected to resume practice.

Interestingly, his hitting partner on Monday, just before his injury, ws a certain Pete Sampras, who also works out and trains at the same academy as Leander.

Leander is expected to ask for a Tuesday first round match next week at Winnetka to make up for a lost day of workout at Florida. Also expected to play at Winnetka, Chicago, is Indian number three Prahlad Srinath, who will however need to play the qualifying rounds.

The last 12 months have been very good for Indian tennis.

For one thing, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati both cracked the top ten rankings, individually, in doubles -- Mahesh, in fact, being now ranked number three in the world, individually, which is the highest ever ranking held by an Indian. Mahesh also became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam event in the mixed doubles, taking the French Open title in 1997, besides reaching the finals of the same event this year, at Wimbledon.

More important, they teamed together to climb to third spot in the world -- higher than any Indian pair, ever, in history. The two, in fact, capped a great 1997 season by reaching the finals of the Phoenix ATP Tour World Doubles Championship.

Leander went on, this year, to also record his first ever singles title triumph, winning the Newport, Rhode Island, Hall of Fame tournament earlier this month.

And it's not just 'Lee' and 'Hesh' -- who, incidentally, have named their doubles partnership 'Indian Express'. The ladies seem to be having a good run, as well.

Nirupama Vaidyanathan, now a regular on the pro tour, reached her career's highest ranking to date recently, while getting into the quarterfinals of the Gexto Challenger in Spain last week.

Earlier, at the Pucheim Challenger in Germany in the first week of July, she reached her first semifinal of this year, her previous last four entry being at Bronx, in August 1997.

Also playing well is the 17-year-old Uzma Khan who, in tandem with Helga Rieira of Angola, lost in the final of the Swiss Junior open tennis tournament last weekend, to the Danes Eva Dyrberg and Rikke Faurfelt, 5-7, 6-3, 2-6.

This Grade 2 ITF junior tournament was a big one, and Uzma will get some good ITF ranking points to boost her doubles rank, having already got up to around 60 in the singles ITF junior rankings.

Uzma, who turns 18 at the end of the year, will be eligible to play 18-and-under ITF tournaments till the end of the 1999 season, and at this point in her career, needs to be playing against top ranked juniors to up her rankings, besides participating in the biggies of the ITF tour, such as the Orange Bowl in the US, the Copa Ericsson in South America and such, which will give her ranking points and elegibility for the junior Slams.

Uzma has remained unbeaten in junior tournaments in the Indian subcontinent last year, doing well both in singles and doubles.

This showing earned her selection by the International Tennis Federation for the junior developmental squad for Europe. Vijay Kannan was also selected along with Uzma for this developmental programme.

Uzma, further, has been playing Federation Cup tennis for India since age 16, with an unblemished 5-0 record in the competition, making her the most proven junior talent in the country just now.

The AITA, apparently under the impression that it was helping the good work along, promised her a few weeks ago that she would be granted Rs 100,000 to pursue her career. That works out to $2400 -- hardly enough to pay her fare to any one tournament, and clearly indicative of how lackadaisical the game's body in India is when it comes to spotting, and promoting, talent.

Other Indians on the up, are Syed Fazaluddin who has moved up 40 steps in the ATP ranking, and is now at the 636 mark. India's number three, Prahlad Srinath, is now 467 and rising.

However, encouraging as the portents are, it seems inevitable that it will all fizz out.

And the reason is the AITA. Not only does it not have any developmental programme worth the name, to unearth talent, it does not even have in place a structure whereby players who come up on their own can be then nurtured, sponsored, and helped to participate on the international circuit, which is the only way they can hone their talents and rise further.

Sadly, despite the fact that Indian tennis has received a fillip thanks to the exploits of the Lee-Hesh combine, corporate bodies don't seem to be too ready to put their money down, either. Thus, India's number four, a Davis Cup regular, does not even have a shoe or racket contract.

Just how apalling that situation is, can be judged if you take a walk to the nearest Florida academy, where you find 15-year-olds, several of them without the standard necessary to ever crack the two 200, sporting hordes of sponsorship logos on their clothes, rackets, shoes, headbands, whatever -- not to mention the direct financial assistance they receive from their national tennis association.

India's women's number one Nirupama Vaidyanathan, the only Indian woman ever to crack the world 200, had to pay her own way through a stint of coaching in Florida recently.

Incidentally, Nirupama Vaidyanathan will be back in the US any day now for a few days of practice on hardcourts before starting the US hardcourt season next week, where she could be playing the qualifiers at the Stanford Bank-of-West tournament if she can make the entry; otherwise, her next shot is at the Salt Lake Challenger next week.

What is true of Nirupama is true, too, of other rising talents, both men and women: Uzma Khan, Radhika Tulpule, P Vishal, Harsh Mankad, Akshay Vishal Rao, Manisha Malhotra, Vijay Kannan, Manoj Mahadevan, Shruti Dhawan, Sheetal Gautam... an endless list of youngsters who, given some backing, could fly the Indian flag even higher, but who, for now, are forced to count every penny, balance the need for coaching against the need to participate in tournaments...

It's a bit like trying to play a Grand Slam wearing shoes lined with lead.