By Carlena Knight
Tennis boss Cordell Williams Snr has reiterated his interests in restarting a programme on the sister isle.
It has been almost 10 years since tennis had a vibrant programme in Barbuda, one of which was run by Williams himself in conjunction with the CoCo Point resort but, since the closure of the hotel and despite some attempts by Williams to restart it with the Barbuda Council, there has yet to be a resumption.
“I used to go over every Saturday and spend the weekend doing tennis. What had happened was CoCo Point opened for six months so when it did, I would go over with them, they covered the expenses but when they closed, I went to the Barbuda Council to cover the fares but that wasn’t forthcoming so that was the end of the programme.
“The Council just refused to bring me over and I couldn’t afford to buy a ticket to go to Barbuda every weekend to teach tennis free,” Williams explained.
Four years ago, a donation was made by the Antigua and Barbuda Tennis Association (ABTA) to the Barbuda Council in hopes of restarting the venture but once again Williams says those attempts apparently fell on deaf ears.
This “lack of interest” by the relevant officials he says is quite disappointing and a great loss to the sport as there is so much potential on the sister isle.
“I tried to reach out to the coordinator a few times. I remember even four years ago when we gave the then minister Mr Nibbs some rackets and balls to start back the programme but then the hurricane came so that was the end of that.
“Since then, nothing has happened. There’s been no talks or anything to say that they will revive the programme. I understand that the tennis court is back up but you know sometimes people have a hidden agenda and there were some great players over there,” he added.
Williams was speaking on the Good Morning JoJo sports show.