Thaindian News

By Anand Philar
Chennai, Jan 4 (IANS) Vijay Amritraj received a “consultancy fee” of $140,000 (about Rs 6.5 million) each year for his association with the ATP Chennai Open - twice of what the winner recieves. The money paid to the former Indian Davis Cupper was declared in the budget estimates submitted to the central home, external affairs and sports ministries for clearance of foreign exchange, documents show.

According to documents made available to IANS, the 2009 Chennai Open had a budget of $1.2 million, of which $400,000 was allotted for “appearance fee” and $450,000 towards prize-money, besides the “consultancy fee” paid to Amritraj.

Incidentally, the “consultancy fee” paid to Amritraj is twice the prize-money the winner of the tournament receives, which is $68,450.

The 56-year old Chennai-born, US-based Amritraj was projected as the “face” of the Chennai Open, which the Tamil Nadu government supported through a consortium of sponsors over the past few years.

As such, Amritraj was a permanent fixture at the draw ceremony usually held two days prior to the commencement of the tournament as also at the prize-distribution ceremony on the concluding day of the event.

However, this year, Amritraj was not invited to the draw ceremony and it can only be inferred that his involvement in the tournament has been drastically reduced.

At an impromptu interaction with the media Sunday, Amritraj made an emotional statement about his efforts to give the Chennai Open a high profile and that he did not attend the draw ceremony because he was not invited.

When contacted for his comments on Amritraj’s “consultancy fee”, Ravi Krishnan, Managing Director, IMG (South Asia), the owners of the tournament, said: “As the event owner, IMG is the sole arbiter of the event budget. In the case of Aircel Chennai Open we do take inputs from TNTA on certain items.”

Amritraj was not immediately available for his comments.