Suresh's period tennis was at its best

Mano TITTAWELLA

Having read the damaging and misleading newspaper articles (not in ANCL group) in the last couple of months, I feel that I have to put the record straight on the issues he has dealt with as I was part of the SLTA committee under Suresh Subramaniam's tenure.

The so called facts that the scribe seems to harp on seems to have little or no bearing on tennis or the development of tennis but seems to hint of a certain vendetta or grudge he seems to bear against the SLTA and Subramaniam.

Subramaniam was the President of the SLTA from 2002 - 2007, a period considered by many genuine tennis players, officials, coaches, administrators and parents to be a highly successful golden era, where tennis moved into the outstations, wheel chair tennis was re-initiated, foreign coaches were employed, tennis legends Margaret Court and Mahesh Bupathi visited the SLTA and conducted coaching sessions and knowledge sharing programs.

A number of international tournaments were held in Sri Lanka among them were the ATF under 14 tour which was initiated by Suresh and was very successful in the Asian region. Furthermore, the professional men's US $10,000 and Women's US$. 5000 events were held in Colombo. The ITF Coaches workshops were held and exams were also conducted in Sinhalese and Tamil to encourage ball boys who wanted a coaching certificate. These ball boys turned coaches now earn approximately Rs. 100,000/- a month.

It is worth noting that it was during Suresh's tenure that the Hard Court project commenced and was successfully implemented.

We also had many sponsors who came forward, including Carsons, Brandix, Aggreko, AMW, Janashakthi, SAGT, KHD, Wilson, Suresh on a personal level etc., who supported tennis with a view to uplifting the game.

There was never a hint of any irregularity, financial or otherwise, during this period. The financial accounts were audited and submitted to the Auditor General's Dept. and passed at the AGM with no challenge. When Subramaniam handed over the reins to the late Janaka Bogollagama in 2007 the SLTA had a healthy balance sheet running into millions - a fact known and vouched for by many. In one year by 2008 February there was barely anything left and having an interim committee did not help the coffers. It is also a widely known fact that sponsors withdrew their support after Subramaniam's tenure.

It is very surprising to see such unconstructive criticism leveled against a man who has spent all his time and money to promote his passionate sport. The writer has unfortunately chosen to malign a Sri Lankan tennis legend and a world-class administrator. I wonder whether there is a hidden agenda, including promotion of other, rather dubious personalities to positions of importance in Sri Lanka's Tennis administration through the back-door.

As a former public school tennis player and a lover of the game, who at various times held top positions in the private and public sector in Sri Lanka, I thought its my duty to put the record straight to expose hidden agenda of the said newspaper articles.