Ramesh Seebarran was Thursday night unanimously elected president of the Guyana Tennis Association (GTA) at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the body at the Georgetown Club, Camp Street.
Seebarran, president of the new Diamond Tennis Club, was nominated by three clubs and will head the GTA for the next year after succeeding lawyer and accountant Christopher Ram who because of the constitution of the GTA was ineligible to serve a third term.
The first vice-president is Grace McCalmon, who was nominated and voted for in absentia while Nigel Glasgow was unanimously elected to the post of second vice president.
Haynauth Jamuna of the Diamond Tennis Club will serve as secretary, the post vacated by Seebarran while Andrew Sawh takes over from Anita Rampersaud as the organisation’s treasurer.
Jamuna and Sawh were elected unopposed.
Ram was retained on the executive as one of four committee members.
The others are Sandeep Chand, Andre Lopes and Chester Fraser.
In his first remarks as president, Seebarran noted that the new executives will be looking forward to implementing aspects of the five-year plan that the institution recently drafted, spanning the period from 2012 to 2016.
Apart from continuing with the development of the sport’s junior talent through tournaments and the GTA’s schools programme, Seebarran mentioned that expansion plans are in the works with the hope of getting the sport integrated into the rural communities.
He was optimistic of the construction of courts in the Essequibo district where the lack of a tennis facility has stifled the efforts made to popularise the sport following the staging of a tennis clinic last year.
Seebarran thanked the previous executive for the diligent work that they did in bringing the sport to its current state and told the new executives that the association will continue the fast-paced development which has been inherited from the previous association.
“Emphasis will be placed on achieving our plans as set out in our five-year plan agreed with the ITF’s (International Tennis Federation) representative Mr. Anthony Jeremiah,” he said.
“I am hoping that we can get sponsor to do a court in Essequibo before the end of the next financial year. Essequibo is the one county without a public court.” Seebarran added.
The new executives also inherited a steady financial standing as pointed out by the outgoing treasurer in the association’s financial report for the year ending December 2011.
The GTA’s audited report was conducted by Parmasan Accountants, which was also unanimously selected to continue presiding as auditors for the GTA, a service provided on a pro bono basis.
