New Zealand and Malaysia have pulled out of their Asia-Oceania zonal group ties, unable to find suitable players to field a team.
New Zealand's Sacha Jones is injured while Marina Erakovic, who is returning from injury, has opted to play a challenger this week in an attempt to boost her ranking. "We didn't think it was viable," said New Zealand federation chief Steve Wood.
I am really not surprised with this course of action as Tennis slips further down the tree of sports in this country .Lets have a look at a couple of points made in this news brief.
1.Unable to find suitable players.- A great backing to all New Zealand female tennis players. This is attracting news for all the wrong reasons! So its loud and clear I guess if the players in the "eyes of TNZ" don't reach a certain playing criteria then we won't send a team!
2."We didn't think it was viable- In other words we don't really have the money but yet in the Southern Region there was a waste of over$150,000.00 setting up a CEO that failed, three cars in the region that are still being payed for,a development officer , the resignation of a board, investigations into mismanagement...the region actually operated fine by a volunteer Southern region before this new great scheme that has led to total disaster for tennis in the Southern Region.So this money that has dissapeared with out any benefit to local associations could of funded three years of Fed Cup appearances.
On the other hand the players in question to be selected probably were not of that standard but certainly would of benefited by the experience.Unfortunately parents and juniors are often blinded by local results thinking they are on the way to Wimbledon ...far from it 300- 400 would be a good result for local players but by New Zealand standards that ain't going to get you into Fed Cup!
Lately results of the local Men have been disappointing with some playing local money tournaments, its a hard road to the top simply at this stage players here don't have enough financial backing, the discipline and mental approach, nor the depth and playing level to make you fight to get to the top nor a structured development program .Far too many local coaches paying lip service to parents with big dreams!
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Could not agree with you more , rumors of an Otago Tennis collapse does not go well for Southern Region. What is the real state of New Zealand Tennis when this happens ?
ReplyDeleteI agree with TNZ we do not have the players why waste the money on weak juniors.
ReplyDeletespent every break of last few days of new job at lower decile Otago primary school dragged onto court by two kids who just want to play tennis endlessly. 10 year old left handed physically strong tall girl and 6 year old Maori lad; both with better hand eye co-ordination and power than most juniors you see at 10s or 12s tournaments around here. No time for lunch, they're begging me to get the key to the PE shed, their eyes never leave the ball.... it's a crying shame. These are the kids NZ has no hope of getting into the game. The girl would be a star if coached, she's a single-minded perfectionist, no way the parents could afford tennis but no way is there funding or a route in NZ for kids like this. Above comment 'anonymous' please note. Sell the cars, I say, and I'll keep feeding the balls at breaks to these kids. Southern Tennis, are you reading..........hello??????
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteYour claims in Point 2 are defamatory and I suggest you edit or remove them immediately.
Since my departure as CEO in June 2009 I have made numerous offers to Tennis NZ and the Tennis Southern Board, both verbally and in writing, to discuss any matters or concerns relating to the operation of Tennis Southern. I have been assured in every instance there was nothing that needed sorting or resolving.
John Crawford-Smith
Great to see you dropping in occasionally , I have allowed your comment as this is an opinionated blog I stand by what has been written, at the time of writing Southern does not have a CEO so I guess this is some failure would you not think?, it still has cars in the region,and as we all know there has been an on going issue with accountability.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Otago I see MR JCS comment and i just have to sit there and laugh.
ReplyDeleteGood lord. Southern Tennis still has not refunded the entry fees for the tournament it cancelled with less than 24 hours notice in December, there were kids in Queenstown packed and ready to go, checking the draw only to find there WAS NO tournament. Chances to play the Canterbury tournament dashed, while Nationals loomed for unprepared Southern players. Emails all unanswered from scores of parents wondering what the hell was going on for Nationals, did Southern Tennis Care? Then last weekend on Sunday I sadly saw a handful of 10 and under kids hitting at the Edgar Centre with parents, very, very disappointed kids - another tournament cancelled with less than 24 hours notice. In the distance, a Southern Tennis board member coaching a pupil.....Entry fees no doubt also sucked into the Southern Tennis void. An amazing facility otherwise vacant. Eion Edgar would despair, but he is long gone from the city he tried to help tennis players develop in.... Parents who had cancelled other sporting events, and Marlborough Tournament plans, venting frustrations, professional work meetings scheduled cancelled for the weekend. Abominable. Hoping to hell the wake up calls have well and truly been heard.
ReplyDeleteIts a sorry state of affairs , all too much for me
ReplyDeletebring on the world cup rugby! Way too may coaches on the board , right from the start when the conflict of interest was raised at the annual general meeting this was a body that was never going to work for the benefit of Southern Tennis.
totally doesn't surprise me. we went to the 12's Nationals in Hamilton in January, it was run by TennisNZ, plate draw done before some girls had finish there games, doubles first round done - team mates playing each other every where. Teams shortened to 2.5 Days. games were to be up to 9 then changed to 3 sets up to 4 and long duce in doubles, when it didn't rain for the day we were still there at 7.30pm. when it rained 1 doubles played 1 game indoors then moved out doors in the rain on Astro to 4 each with the girls totally drenched moved back indoors where only 1 court was in use. Refs was very poor as well.
ReplyDeleteTennisNZ a big thums down