Steer the Tennis boat to safety

When the St Vincent and the Grenadines Tennis Association hosts it general meeting tomorrow, Saturday, January 25, 2025, at the Murray Heights Hotel’s Conference Room at Mc Kies Hill, a new executive should be in place to serve the sport for the next four years.

Those who follow the sport will acknowledge and glean that everything has not been honky dory with Tennis over the past decade or so.

This, by and large, because of many fall-outs among elected members which resulted in a loss of interest among parents, inevitably trickled down to the potential players, sponsors and other stakeholders.

Sporadically, there were semblances of a movement towards of stability, but to no avail. And, we are it again, hence, the latest episode to have a new administrative mandate locked down, is another in the series of stop/starts relative to the sport of Tennis here in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

At the heart of the apparent discord is that of the membership process.

As it stands, anyone seeking to become a member of the SVGTA, must put in writing his/her interest.

Thereafter, the executive of the SVGTA has six months to process the application, and can either grant or deny membership.

Unfortunately, this ruling prevented some persons from becoming part of the workforce, to rekindle national interest in Tennis.

Admittedly, the strained relationships between the Brian Nash sitting executive, got protracted to the detriment of the sport.

That ruling, among other governance concerns, prompted five “members”- Ronald Veira, Corey Huggins, Grant

Connell, Peter Nanton and Anthony Mc Kenzie, to request an extraordinary meeting of the SVGTA.

This request, coupled with a vehement call for a no confidence motion against the Nash-led executive took place in June 2022. However, the grouping was unable to have their needs met, hence the matter only got as far as a ventilation in the public domain.

Such happenings are not new to the sport, as 13 to 14 years ago, there was the back hand shot, as few persons were making themselves available to serve on the national executive of the SVGTA, then under the headship of Anthony Mc Kenzie.

Hopefully, all those raging waters would have subsided and replaced by conducive weather to sail the Tennis vessel into its port of call.

Likewise, optimistically and confidently, this column believes good sense will prevail at tomorrow’s elective meeting, hence, all stakeholders will throw their differences aside, and make the growth and development of the sport, their main priority.

Despite everything, Nash and his committed executive, did not abandon their tasks, and must be commended for not jumping off when things got rough. Therefore, getting a good captain, a supportive crew, and cooperative passengers are the key elements needed for the ship to stay afloat. There is too much at stake to allow the Tennis ship to run aground, as St Vincent and the Grenadines is setting itself up again to be a hub for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) approved Junior Tennis tournaments. On the downside, the sport is experiencing a significant drop in the number of youngsters gaining Tennis scholarships to go off to colleges and universities in the United States of America.

That gaping hole in the hull of the Tennis ship, has to be plugged, and that has affected the functioning of the rudder as well.

The sport, whilst not totally adrift, seemed to have been operating without a good functioning engine, as the horse power needed proved to be inadequate. Therefore, it will be a case of all hands-on deck, as those who love Tennis, care about its survival, come on board, strap in, and row the boat that was once majestic, safely to shore.