Sad news today for Indian tennis fans. Sania Mirza, the greatest thing to ever happen to Indian tennis, announced today that she will be withdrawing from the Bangalore Open and will not be playing in India “for some time.”
Mirza has been under a relentless amount of scrutiny lately. As the historian Ramachandra Guha wrote in an article recently:
“Male chauvinists have taken exception to her dress; religious bigots have protested a picture that has both her and a mosque in the same frame; jingoists have exploded at the (purely accidental) closeness of her feet in another frame to the national flag.”
Sigh.
venu said,
February 7, 2008 at 3:47 am
it is sania’s fundamental right to decide whether she play in india or not to play .if she was playing for england no body will dare to comment on such silly issues . ofcourse you can comment about her service,energy levels,and killer instinct. don’t forget she is the only indian woman on top of the world 3 cheers for sania
lakshmigandhi said,
February 7, 2008 at 4:26 am
I think you misinterpreted my sigh. Longtime readers of this blog know that I am a huge Sania fan. My frustration was directed towards those who have relentlessly criticized her about her clothes and opinions. The flag controversy in particular really took the cake.
Firebrand said,
February 8, 2008 at 5:20 am
Didn’t the flag incident happen in Australia? So nowhere in the world is really safe. Do they have clay courts on the red planet?
lakshmigandhi said,
February 8, 2008 at 3:58 pm
The photo of Sania’s feet next to the flag was taken in Australia, but the controversy was created and fueled by activists in India. I’ve read a couple of things on Australian sports sites that express bemusement that the photo created such a frenzy.
Jatonian Life » Blog Archive » Putting An Accent On the Future said,
March 30, 2008 at 7:37 pm
[...] The usual topics were basically current events. They were based on IPL, the Tata Nano and Sania Mirza’s decision not to play in India. Being in group 29, I had to wait till the end so the guy knew we were prepared with these. So he [...]