By Neto Baptiste
The Antigua and Barbuda Tennis Association (ABTA) is not a beneficiary of government funding.
This is according to head of the association, Cordell Williams, who said the body has not received assistance from the government’s coffers for some time now. His statement is in response of a stance by sports minister, Daryll Matthew, who said during the hosting of National Sports Awards in June that associations failing to make nominations will not be prioritised for funding.
“The average person outside would be believe that the association is getting funding when the reality is that the association is not getting any funding. We went to the Billy Jean Cup and the Davis Cup and we have not received even one cent, but Peter Quinn and I tried to get the athletes out how we can and even still have credit to pay and we have not received a cent,” he said.
“It’s all good and well when ministers speak and people out there don’t know and believe what they say, but the reality is that we, as an association, have to come out and debunk that statement and I am here to debunk that statement; we have not received any help or assistance,” he added.
Williams revealed also that as it stands now, the country is not in a position to host any International Tennis Federation (ITF) sanctioned tournaments due to the limited number of available courts.
The coach said he had written to numerous officials after learning he would have to vacate courts belonging to a popular hotel due to planned upgrades to the facility months ago bit is yet to receive a reply.
“I wrote to the tourism minister, to the prime minister, to the [NOC] president informing them that the association is going to fall back if we don’t get a home or are able to maintain use of those courts because we host four international tournaments every year, so if we lose these courts then we won’t be able to host any tournaments. Nobody called me, nobody had a meeting and I can show you my email where ITF wrote me four times this year asking me to host tournaments and I had to say we cannot host the tournaments because we do not have the court requirements,” Williams said.
The tennis boss added that officials who give of their time and efforts to nation building through sports, receives very little in return.
“Association work is voluntary work, so I do not get paid, and it was a big thing when I got an award from the Governor General for service rendered but you know that’s just talk because I brought in a vehicle and I had to pay all the interest and tax on it. Even though they give you a duty free you still have to pay so I end up and still have to find $17,000,” he said.
“It’s my vehicle but it’s not really my vehicle because as the president of the association and running a programme I have to drop home children, I have to pick up children and when an ITF official comes you have to transport. So all these are things that need to go in place so that as president and as elected members who have served we should get some kind of privilege because you put in all this and you get nothing back in return,” he added.
Williams recently returned from Trinidad with the country’s Davis Cup team where they just missed promotion to Zone III after losing 2-0 to Puerto Rico in the decisive fixture.
