Dear Editor,
I noticed that Mr Christopher Ram and now Freddie Kissoon are desperately trying to make a mountain out of a molehill on Mr Anthony Jeremiah not being able to meet Minister Anthony. As far as I am aware Mr Jeremiah is employed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to promote the development of the game in the Caribbean. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport is aware that Mr Jeremiah is a regular visitor to Guyana, and on selected occasions would request meetings with the Minister and other officials. On his last visit, the Tennis Association made a request for a meeting; this was arranged and had to be cancelled because of the Minister’s busy schedule. Instead of trying to reschedule the meeting to a mutually convenient time, the association sent out a press release claiming that they had been snubbed. The media made no attempt to verify the content of the press release, as any objective and independent media should have done, but proceeded to publish Mr Ram’s lopsided view on the matter.
It seems that Mr Ram and friends of his ilk would like to use innocent sports associations to promote their personal and political agendas. It is little wonder that so many of the executives of the Tennis Association have resigned in disgust, because they are fed up with his dictatorial attitude. This should be a cause for concern for the ITF Development Officer, because with a shrinking executive the game would stultify.
Mr Jeremiah’s responsibilities as ITF Development Officer would include advising national associations and assisting in the implementation of projects which form part of the ITF Development Programme, evaluating and monitoring the use of the funds and resources allocated to the national associations for various programmes and the success of these programmes. I guess we will have to await another press release from Mr Ram to know how much money they received from the ITF, and how this has been allocated and spent. Perhaps an explanation would also be in order from Mr Jeremiah and Mr Ram as to why Guyana did not receive an ITF/GSDF Facility Grant when countries such as Turks and Caicos have benefited. Or maybe they can explain whether Guyana has benefited from ITF equipment distribution programmes. The simple truth is that very little has been done by Mr Jeremiah and Mr Ram to develop tennis in Guyana.
It seems that to hide their incompetence they are seeking a scapegoat, and as always they want to obfuscate the issue. But the question that must be asked is not whether there was a meeting, but what have these two ‘leaders’ in tennis done for the development of the game?
Yours faithfully,
Neil Kumar