‘Beating the drum’ for growth of Tennis
View(s):The words promotion and development or growth, create confusion in Tennis administrations, clubs and individuals. In today’s world, all major sports are fighting to evolve and stay prominent above others for recognition, sponsor favour and public interest to each relevant sporting event. In this scenario some sports are facing extinction in certain countries.
It is difficult to accept as to what is happening to Tennis in many countries. Tennis can be considered a very popular sport but of recent, there are signs that the promotion and development of Tennis is heading in the wrong direction. Proof of this statement nationally is in the poor standard of national Tennis, the lack of facilities, the size of the participatory base and the lack of enthusiasm towards Tennis events. They are all well below expected levels, compared to what existed few decades ago. With the availability of the electronic information highway, Tennis does not lack information but lacks enthusiasm in the public to get attached to it as participants.
Salient & obvious
Development is inter-linked with promotion and it encompasses a large area with many aspects. Let me touch on the salient and the obvious. Tennis needs Tennis courts but we do not have as many as we used to have. Let us leave statistics aside and see why‘promotion’ of the game which was there, is not sustainable now. One senior player told me a few months ago ‘Tennis went with the Tennis clubs’. This by far, is the reason for the decline. In the past, Tennis courts were used by players from 12 to 70 years. Majority of them were between 25 and 60 and the clubs were their favourite playing venues. A club’s main activity was to maintain the courts and promoting the game year round. The National Association never created Tennis clubs in the history of the sport in Sri Lanka.Enthusiasts in urban locations grouped together to form clubs, create facilities and then joined the Association as an affiliate to be part of the national Tennis family. It is the ‘participatory-Tennis’ promotion that made Tennis popular in Ceylon and later in Sri Lanka. This process has stopped. Of course, there were closures of Tennis clubs from time to time, even at the peak of Tennis popularity but new clubs were formed. This does not happen anymore.
It is evident that to promote Tennis we need to develop awareness, combine entertainment and participation of the people. They in turn will form groups to revive the game which would lead to making playable venues with sustainable ideas.
Birth of a club
Over a decade ago, in Brunei, on the beach of a small town close to a place called Tutong, a Bruneian told me that he is a Footballer and a ‘member’ of the Liverpool Club! In front of me was the South China Sea and behind me was the wilderness of the Borneo island and it took me a while to comprehend what the man was saying. Later, I visited ‘his’ Liverpool Club. The revelation is a study worth registering in the promotion of a game. Influenced by media information in the Malaysian League competition, this group has taken interest to follow Football with their borrowed identity and similarly another group in their neighborhood has taken Manchester United’s name. They have all become Liverpool and Manchester fans culminating in the formation of a ‘club’. With the word ‘Club’ a location has come to being to play football. Their enthusiasm made the idea into a participatory event in the location they live. Many mechanics were incorporated to sustain interest. All players had Liverpool footballers names. If any sport is to revive, this story may have a hidden formula for success. Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United propelled the promotion of Football worldwide. It was a phenomenal success that can deliver very many lessons.
While Cricket and Football can claim billions of fans, relatively few actually play the two sports. On the contrary, Tennis can claim millions of participatory players. So the first principle to revive would be to pool the people with Tennis interest, followed by information, entertainment, interaction and events. Simply, follow the original, time-tested club concept and the strength of its membership will contribute to its promotion and sustainability.
Our current scenario
In recent times ‘development’ has become the money-spinner in sport. For many Associations this has become their sole income to sustain an office. The notion of ‘promotion of sport’ and the activities related to it seems to be unknown in Sri Lanka. Until 2 decades ago, ‘development’ was in the right perspective. In the absence of promotion, ‘Coaching-school’ idea has become the development wing of Tennis. Any study will reveal that it has taken our ‘performance standard’ to a very low level. It does not cater to the need of players in all ages to develop the standard of Tennis. Most of the coaches in coaching schools have never been a national level player. Not because they did not want to but due to the fact that when they reached their twenties, there were no opportunities to mature as a competition player. This deprived them of international competitions completely, creating a vacuum due to the lack of ‘promotion’. It will not be easy to change the mindset of a society but it is more to the reason to address the issue soon.
–George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach–gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-