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.
This is so sad … after Guyana was told it does not have ranked persons to compete, it gets a chance to eventually attend … and what? … the inept GOA selects, not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4 but a whole possee to go to the Games … when they are persons who have qualifications to compete and are left out … when is this joyriding gun done? Lord help Guyana sports, the mental ain’t know what the physical doing … such a shame!!
it seems that where sports in guyana is concerned confusion and secrecy is the order of the day. I say this against the backdrop of this article and one that appears in the kaieteur new that informs us that alika morgan has been selected to the team after last minute check in the database to ensure no athlete had been treated unfairlygood luck to alika she has been a great ambassador in the sporting arena. I now ask the question why was dianne munroe not selected? she has made the qualifying standard in both the 100 @ 200m races. using the criteria of being fair to the athletes would this not be unfair to her?