By Tiadi Blair
The Guyana Lawn Tennis Association, yesterday said it was unaware of the selection of six lawn tennis players for the inaugural Caribbean Games billed for Trinidad and Tobago next month.
At a press conference on Wednesday the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) released the names of the final 28-member squad for the July 13-19 games which included lawn tennis players Shawna Gentle, Carol Humphrey, Avernelle Holder, Jeremy Miller, Ezra Sue Ho and Anthony Downes.
Notable absentees from that list were number one players Phillip Squires and Shelly Daly Ramdyhan.
Yesterday Daly-Ramdyhan, who is also the national coach, told Stabroek Sport: “I was not aware of the press conference and I was unaware that tennis players were selected for the (Caribbean) Games.”
She added that although the association had planned to participate at next month’s games she was unaware that the planning committee had already made their selections.
At Wednesday’s press conference held at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, it was disclosed that Guyana would be represented in athletics, boxing and tennis but not in volleyball and netball.
Secretary of the GLTA Grace Mc Calman told Stabroek Sport last evening that the names slected represented the names that were submitted for accreditation but added that the lawn tennis team has not yet been finalized.
Contacted last evening chef-de mission of the Caribbean games team Gokarn Ramdhani said initially there was an issue whether the GLTA would have been able to participate since the GOA was told that if the players were not ranked they would be unable to play because they were not participating in regional and other international competitions.
“We still went ahead and submitted their names… we didn’t wipe them out,” Ramdhani said.
He said it was subsequently disclosed that once the association was affiliated to the International Tennis Federation they would be able to play.
Ramdhani said he held discussions yesterday with Mc Calman on the matter and was informed that the GLTA would meet last evening and he would be given the names of the team sometime today for him to forward to the authorities in Trinidad.
Some $2.7 million has been budgeted for this event.
