Bhupathi, Bopanna can appeal against punishment: AITA

AITA Secretary General Bharat Oza said that Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna can reach out to the executive committee and appeal against the punishment handed to them on the ground of indiscipline.

"We are not denying the yeoman service being done by the two players. They can appeal to the executive committee. We will forward that to the ethics committee," Oza said.

"I have written to the players, they can put forward their views. We have never called them traitors," he added.

The AITA, in a release, stated that the decision to ban the duo was taken by a majority in the executive committee and president Anil Khanna was "in minority" in this case.

Asked to explain, Oza said, "He was in minority in the sense that we debated on the length of the punishment. A lot of options were explored. Some said they should be ignored forever and another view was that they should not be considered for at least 2-3 ties."

"Mr Khanna said there should be a specific period and there should not be ambiguity on the length of the punishment. The length of the punishment was debated and he was in minority in what was decided," Oza said.