Time to mow bushy weed in our lawn tennis

• Sport in the former continental lawn tennis powerhouse has gone to the dogs

Just what is ailing local tennis? Two decades ago Kenya was a force to reckon with in lawn tennis. Kenya could hold its own on the continent.

Today, the sport is facing a lot of problems – financial, coaching and even availability of top notch players.

From having a vibrant executive committee and top-ranked players in Africa, the sport has been dwindling every year with less and less tournaments hosted but for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) which has kept it afloat with occasional junior championships.

The executive committee of Kenya Lawn Tennis Association, headed by Patrick Gichira, should bring back the lost glory. It’s high time KLTA held their overdue annual general meeting – slated for April but pushed to September over audited books of accounts.

Painfully, of late a mere four members – out of 18 – can attend a council meeting and pass resolutions as most have abandoned or lost interest in the meetings.

Coast Lawn Tennis Association (CLTA), an affiliate of KLTA, is no longer as active as it used to be, holding only one or two tournaments in a year. The chairman himself at times fails to grace the Chairman’s Cup, popular in the past.

In the yesteryears KLTA held several tournaments and at one time some players took the sport as a career. KLTA was even awarded the Coca-Cola Trophy for being one of the best organizations.

As a tradition, present or immediate past chairman of the association attend the United States Tennis Association Open tournaments every year, but that is not the case nowadays.

Kenya was on top of the game

Gone are the days when chairmen such as Jim Davies, James Kenani, Noah Wekesa and Dixon Katibi steered the association to greater heights.

At one time the future was bright as ITF initiated programmes in countries, financing most of their budgets to the tune of millions of dollars.

When people like Dave Miley from ITF were in charge, goodies flowed into the continent. Miley brought life to the sport, players excelled and coaches obtained level one certification. The future looked bright as clubs hosted many tournaments and leagues were played on weekdays.

Kenya was on top of the game when the likes of Paul Wekesa, Eno Polo, Norbert Oduor and Philip Ilako steered it to victory over Romania in Nairobi in 1992 to qualify for Davis Cup Group One. The previous year, the country had been crowned the All Africa champions and named the Coca-Cola Team of the Year.

In 1992 Kenya played countries like Denmark, Luxembourg, Latvia, Ireland and Bulgaria in Davis Cup and in 1996 Nairobi hosted 14 countries for the Davies Cup Euro Africa Zone Group Three.

Then, ITF president Brain Tobin and Doug McCurdy visited and a schools mini tennis programme got $20,000. Some 40 schools got equipment thanks to ITF coordinator Prince Madema, but the schools’ tennis courts have either been lost to other sports or neglected.

In 1995, hosts Kenya were 12th overall from 20 countries in the prestigious women’s Federation Cup (Fed Cup) tournament and between 1994 and 1996 held the $10,000 women’s Satellite tournament where players such as Saloni Kantaria, Phyllis Wilunda, Ambreen Rana, Shaheen Bhanji and Florence Wanjiru shone.

Just what happened to some of our promising players, who today roam the streets or pretend to be coaches?

Bring back our sport.