Tennis: Venezuela Barred From Hosting Davis Cup Match

CARACAS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -9th Sept,2016) - Venezuela has been barred from hosting a Davis Cup tennis match against Peru over security concerns, authorities in the crisis-hit country said Thursday, alleging a "conspiracy" against its socialist government.

Venezuelan tennis chief Luis Contreras told a news conference the International Tennis Federation (ITF) had ruled his country could not host the September 16-18 match in the Caribbean coastal city of Puerto La Cruz due to a "high security risk." Venezuela is gripped by an economic and political crisis that has sparked deadly looting and rioting over recent months.

It has nevertheless hosted sporting events such as Olympic boxing qualifying rounds in July. "This is simply a conspiracy," said the president of the government's National Sporting Institute, Pedro Infante, referring to the ITF's decision.

"It is political in nature and is part of an international political network that is trying to undermine Venezuela." Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington and its allies of seeking to overthrow him.

Venezuelan Olympic Committee chief Eduardo Alvarez said the ITF had proposed Miami or the Caribbean island of Aruba as alternative venues. Infante said Venezuelan authorities preferred the fixture to take place in Cuba but there was not time to organize it there.

The Peruvian Tennis Federation said in a statement on Thursday that the fixture to decide which of the two countries gets promoted to Group I of the competition will finally take place in Lima, Peru.