Pat Cash: LTA head should quit over shocking state of British tennis
• Australian accuses Roger Draper of failing youngsters
• Only two British men in Wimbledon draw
As a matter of fact. For the first time ever, there is no Englishman in the men's singles draw at Wimbledon.
The source of this article is the Press Association and it is taking in full from our friends at the Guardian.co.uk
The former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has called on the Lawn Tennis Association chief executive, Roger Draper, to resign for the "shocking" and "disgraceful" way Britain's governing body has let down the country's young tennis players at grassroots level.
When Draper took on the role in 2006 he vowed to revolutionise the sport and bring more of Britain's players into the top 100 of world tennis. Yet four years later, only two Britons - Andy Murray and Elena Baltacha – sit inside that mark, with world No4 Murray the only player to have a serious chance of winning a grand slam tournament this year.
Defeat for Alex Bogdanovic at Roehampton yesterday left Britain with only two qualifiers for the men's singles event at Wimbledon – Murray and the world No259, Jamie Baker, while the five probable women qualifiers are unlikely to make it into the final stages of the tournament.
In their 2009 annual report the LTA claimed over 30,000 young people played tennis on a regular basis, a significant rise of over 20,000 from when Draper took over in 2006.
Cash, who won Wimbledon in 1987, denies tennis is readily accessible to British young players, though, and reckons the £32m spent on the national tennis centre in Roehampton should have been directed towards encouraging youngsters into the sport.
"If the LTA think everything is all right they are insane," Cash said. "Most experts, including myself, have been shocked by the way they have neglected the grassroots with the kids that have been starting picking up tennis rackets.
"It has been quite shocking how little they have put into people who can't afford to be at a lovely club and get kids to play at local parks. You can't find tennis champions unless you have kids playing tennis. It's a very tough game to perform in. There is talent out there. There's no doubt about it. It's just about finding it and bringing them into sport, but what they have been doing is next to nothing. It's been disgraceful."
When asked whether he thought Draper should resign if Britain failed to perform well in the next few years, Cash replied: "I actually think Roger Draper should have gone years ago. He should have had the guts to say 'Look, I've underperformed. I'm embarrassed to have done so little'.
"In any other company, any other business, they would say it's time for him to go. They are the laughing stock of the world as far as tennis associations of the world go. There's not going to be a great performance for Britain at Wimbledon this year. If you look at the first day of qualifying for Wimbledon and all the men are out already. It's just another year of the same old thing."
In response to the allegations, an LTA spokesman said: "Investment in grassroots is our priority. We are spending over £40m over five years in improving facilities. We have more than half a million people playing tennis in England alone. That number is growing and we are looking to increase that number further.
"The statistics show that 79% of schools in England offer tennis as a sport and now 42% of schools are linked with a tennis club, that's up from 27% in 2003.
"It's not just in schools that we are moving forward. We are four years into a 10-year project, so yes, this will take time, but we are already starting to see encouraging signs both in performance tennis and at grassroots level. The accusation is that we are not getting kids playing tennis, but club membership among children has grown by 16% in the last three years."
As well as investing more in youth development, Cash believes more former players, such as Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, could be brought in to aid the progress of Britain's top players.
"Maybe they'll start asking some of the ex-players to get involved," Cash added. "They have talked to a lot of top-name players but they're quite happy with what they are doing even though it's clearly not working."
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