Intro:

Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, co-owner of Singapore Slammers, expects to see good times for the franchise-based tennis league, International
Premier Tennis League, which starts in early December.

Script:

SOUNDBITE (English) Sunil Gavaskar Former Indian Cricketer

"It's a different format, like the IPL (Indian Premier League) is a whole different animal, in the sense that you have got eight teams with some of the best players in the world, some raw talent, some fantastic young local Indian players coming through. So i think this should probably be the case with IPTL (International Premier Tennis League) as well. With a lot of current champions, legends of the game, and also i think the fact that they will be playing in these four cities should excite the youngsters in those cities, to try and become as good as the champions and the legends that they see".

SOUNDBITE (English) Mahesh Bhupathi, Promoter, IPTL,

"I mean as far as the leagues go, we are the gold class, we have got the players and we are looking forward to kind of making a splash next month"

SOUNDBITE (English) Sunil Gavaskar, Former Indian Cricketer,

" Yes, I think Vijay (Amritraj) is a city-based league in India. It is a India-centric league which also has some fine players coming through, that probably gives a lot more opportunities for the Indian players, to young Indian players because they are part of the teams as well. So I think that is mainly a India based league while this is you know a league which is bigger than that".

SOUNDBITE (English) Mahesh Bhupathi, Promoter, IPTL,

" I think the property was exciting to them, they obviously don't get..tennis is an individual sport, you don't get to play team format much, but being on the team with others, girls and guys and legends, is unique and that's why we have got a great bunch of players".

Q. Will (Roger) Federer come to play for Delhi?

Ans. "He is fine, it is Davis Cup, he is already practicing in France".