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The Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) is now run by an Interim Committee. It came under an interim administration simply because the government of Sri Lanka didn’t believe in tennis authorities that are elected by the member clubs or the affiliates of the SLTA at the Annual General Meetings of this main controlling body of tennis in the island.
When the tennis Interim Committee was appointed by the Sports and Public Recreation Minister Gamini Lokuge on August 30 this year, the main quarry was to develop the sport outside Colombo.
In The Past –
In fact, about twenty years ago, until about the early 1980s, tennis had been a very popular sport and a pastime for the urban and suburban elite and the middle class. Playing tennis was a pride and it was leisure activity as well for both men and women without any age limitation.
Tennis had a superior classy aura during the pre and post independence era here until the open economic system changed the entire complexion of the class situation of country in the 1980s. The planters and the top businessmen and their family members were involved in the game. Wherever they were, there were tennis courts.
Dying Game –
For instance, there were a maximum number of eight clay courts at Kalutara at one time during the late ’70s and early ’80s.
1. One in front of the Kalutara North Railway Station, 2. Two courts at Kalutara Lawn Tennis Club at Kelido Road, Kalutara North, 3. A court at the Kalutara Town Club at the Kalutara town beside Kalutara esplanade, 4. One at the Kalutara Secretariat premises and another one 5. Far away at Tebuwana for the planters and 6. Two clay courts at the Kalutara Police Training School (PTS) at Palatota, Kalutara.
But now, unfortunately, there are only three clay courts remaining there. One at the Kalutara Lawn Tennis Club and two at the PTS.
Some prominent administrators and officials in the country played or actually began tennis in one of those eight courts at Kalutara.
The situation has been the same with regards to tennis in Kandy, Kurunegala, Matale, Ratnapura, Bandarawela, Matara, Galle, Jaffna and Batticaloa.
True Answers –
Reviving tennis now is a very difficult endeavour in Sri Lanka. One has to understand the changing phase of our society to do so realistically. Mere slogans of ‘carrying tennis to outstations’ won’t be sufficient.
A game like cricket cannot be compared with tennis in this situation. Cricket has had a different social situation during the last fifty years or so in this country.
More than mere talk, the Interim Committee has to find out more realistic ways to carry the sport out of the metropolis. The social interaction with tennis is very much different from what we have seen in the past. Losing in nostalgia of the past sufficiently won’t give correct answers to the present problems.
Beyond Keeping Positions –
To reach the poor or middle-class layers in the present society, tennis administration has to do quite a lot of work. More than just building clay courts here and there, the SLTA ‘Interim’ has to find ways to introduce the sport in the right manner to the people who are alien to the this prestigious and rich man’s game.
The country needs administrators who genuinely need to develop sport here. Rather than talking, the country needs those who find the right ways to achieve their goals and put their beautiful words into action with a noble intent. Not with shallow selfish power-hungry objectives.
