Former Liberal minister Richard Colbeck has slammed Tennis Australia over the Novak Djokovic visa saga, and wants Russians to be banned from the Australian Open.
“The thing that’s really important to note is, did we as an organisation ... do everything we possibly could to follow the rules, and the ever-changing environment, which was a very volatile one at the time? Absolutely we did,” he said.Australian Open chief Craig Tiley.Tiley did not respond to Colbeck’s criticism: “No. We’ve moved on. We’ve moved on to delivering [the] 2023 [tournament]. Everyone’s moved on, Novak’s moved on. We’ve moved on. Everyone’s moved on. The government’s changed.
Former Liberal MP and Australian tennis great John Alexander said it was great news that Djokovic had returned to Australia to play. Alexander, who is returning to the commentary box after retiring from federal politics, said he didn’t want rehash the politics of the decision to deport Djokovic. Russian and Belarussian players were this year controversially banned at Wimbledon after fears from tournament organisers that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use scenes of successful players from those nations as a form of propaganda. Amid significant unrest in tennis, Wimbledon was consequently stripped of rankings points.
Colbeck said he had studied the history of the bans on cricket teams playing in South Africa during the apartheid era, and believed sports such as tennis should send a message to the Russian people over the invasion of Ukraine.
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