Somdev Devvarman — Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, twice NCAA champion who reached a career-best rank of 62 in world tennis — accepted the “any challenge, from any cricketer”, on the Instagram show, Chai with Raja, hosted by Purav Raja.
Even though the 35-year-old Devvarman has retired from the game, he was quite sporting and confident in accepting the proposal from Raja, who termed him the “fittest athlete”, for any fitness challenge by any cricketer.
Devvarman stood out for straight-from-the-heart answers.
Accepting the request for a tour of his house, Devvarman showed the paintings by his wife, and the cheerfully proud artist as well.
Lack of trust
When asked about the proposed National Tennis Academy becoming a non-starter, Devvarman reasoned that it was because of “lack of transparency and lack of trust”.
Called to judge the show, former Davis Cup captain Mahesh Bhupathi accepted Rohan Bopanna’s plea — he was also part of the show — to choose him as the winner. Bhupathi then put the potential of Karman Thandi as No. 75 in terms of rank.
“One last roar together,” said Bhupathi on his love-hate relationship with Leander Paes for more than 20 years, and qualified it further saying, “digitally”.
Asked about the future of the chat show by August, Bhupathi said “prime time TV”, as Raja has managed to host it with considerable professionalism, poise and lively tempo.
Bopanna gave two out of 10 for AITA’s financial transparency. He also named Devvarman as a future Davis Cup team captain. Bopanna himself though would opt for physio if there was a toss up between captain and physio for the team.
Bopanna also chose M.S. Dhoni as company for starters, the Prime Minister for lunch and Amitabh Bachchan for desert, saying that he could then discuss sport, politics and entertainment with them.