The Overrated Star

Vijay ‘Showman’ Amritraj has little to show for all the importance that India lavishes on him.

No one thought that Vijay Amritraj would be embarrassed at the Chennai Open. It’s a tournament in his hometown. It’s a tournament he has nurtured for over 10 years. Vijay’s contacts—more impressive than his game (he is honest enough to admit this)—even saved the event. In 2004, the Tata Group decided they did not want to be title sponsor anymore. A consortium of sponsors was formed and the tournament was saved. Vijay was seen to have played an important role in rallying new sponsors.

This year, Vijay was not invited to the draw ceremony. Also, it emerged that he earned a ‘consultation fee’ of $140,000 each year for the last five years. Everyone knew that Vijay did not work his phone for free (though I have yet to see him carrying a phone). Few, however, knew the scale of his compensation. Now, the facts are out. Sitting in the stands in Hawaiian shirts, perennially laughing, Vijay would make more than twice the winner of the tournament.

“He makes deals and gets out,” an Indian tennis player once said in awe about Vijay’s slick style of business.

While Vijay’s earnings from the Chennai Open are not illegal, even are par for the course from a business angle (it’s a small part of what he brings in, yada-yada…), it raises the question: for all his reach, the United Nations stint, for the philosophy of his foundation (‘In Giving, We Receive’), how much has Vijay Amritraj done for Indian tennis, really? Where money is involved, he is there. But has he made any truly charitable contribution?

Hardly. Vijay’s academy, the Britannia Amritraj Trust (Bat), produced Leander Paes, and the list ends there. The academy itself did not grow. After the Paes generation moved out, Bat too went off the radar.

Even as a player, Vijay was not always the paragon of virtue. Though gentlemanly on court, he used his clout behind the scenes to ensure that Anand, his brother, got to play singles for India in Davis Cup matches. “Vijay pushed for his brother,” Sashi Menon, a member of some of those teams, told Open recently. “Unfortunately it got to the point where if Anand didn’t play (singles), then he didn’t want to play.”

Vijay let down Indian tennis the most when he made a surprising outburst against Paes in 1993. “Why should companies support him if he does not win?” he said. A few days after Vijay’s comments, Paes played an inspired Davis Cup tie against France on clay, and it took India to the semifinals of the competition. Paes is no angel, but at the time he was a rising, legitimate prospect. Vijay showed a disappointing lack of class in unjustifiably disparaging him.

Back then, many people wondered, ‘Given his position, how much has Vijay given back to Indian tennis?’ Nearly two decades later, that question remains valid.

IndiastarVijay Amritraj