'Management of tennis here in safe hands'

Maxwell dismisses all allegations:

Chris DHAMBARAGE

President of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association Maxwell de Silva dimissed all allegations directed on his officials as false as they move closer towards hosting a successful Davis Cup tournament in Colombo next month.

The 57 year old veteran administrator highlighted the huge amount of infrastructure development work which is currently taking place throughout the country and had the satisfaction of hosting three ITF tournaments successfully.

De Silva who came into power in June 2009 said that there has not been any mismanagement or negligence during his tenure and has made every effort to boost the game in the form of many sponsorship packages.

Following are the excerpts from the interview.

Q: How would you respond to the latest allegations that are directed on the Sri Lanka Tennis Association?

A: We had a sponsor during the term of Suresh Subramaniam called South Asia Gateway Terminal running into Rs. three to four million and they had a contract for five years.

On the expiry of their five year term they said they are going to do another project and therefore they will not continue with the sponsorship.Former CEO Lionel Almeida used to send the expenditure of the funds at least in a quarterly report.

After Almeida was changed there was another gentleman but he didn't follow up properly and also he didn't give them the proper support. Therefore the sponsors also felt little bit jittery that they would not continue.

That was the background on to this. This happened few years ago and there was nothing called misappropriate of funds during the time of Suresh Subramaniam.

It was very clean and our accounts were done by the Auditor General and there was no adversary report. When Suresh Subramaniam started it was zero and when he left we had a surplus of more than Rs. Five million. But when Janaka Bogollagama took over as the President and after one year there was an issue. Then there was an Interim Committee during the time of Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge.

Then the trouble started and what happened was that the sponsors withdrew because they felt that there was something wrong. That's why the Minister appointed an Interim Committee.

However all the good work done by the previous president's of the association was in vain and it really hurt tennis and that was the downfall of the game with the arrival of the Interim Committee.

Q: How long you have been associated with the Sri Lanka Tennis Association?

A: I have been there from the last year of John Rajapaksa as the Secretary. Then I was the Secretary to Lalith Vithana and Suresh Subramaniam. Then I came as vice president and I was elected President in June 2009.

Q: How was the financial situation when you took over as President?

A: When I took over the financial side was negative. It was red. My main priority was to turn it to black. I think now we are very sound in the financial aspect compared to the past but we have a long way to go.

We have got some good sponsors but the fact is how you manage it. It is not just doing things on your own. With the help of the former Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge and the present Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage we have managed to find some good sponsors.

Q: Is there any person who is coordinating between the Sri Lanka Tennis Association and the Minister of Sports?

A: Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has not appointed any person as the representative of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association and there is no such thing. The Minister wants to appoint a person but its not only for tennis but for other sports as well.

Q: What was the reason for the early departure of the foreign coach?

A: We hired a coach from Argentina named Alajendro who is one of the best coaches to come to Sri Lanka in the recent past. For that we also got some funds from the Ministry.

But his problem was that he was not committed to Sri Lanka tennis because his daughter is playing professional tennis and he wanted to commit his time with his daughter.

So when he came for the second time we had a fairly long discussion and we thought it is not going to work for us. It is no point keeping someone who is not committed.

He wants to travel with the daughter and we said let's call it a day. Whatever money we spent, have given all the minute records to the Ministry also. During his time we made use of him but for a period of one year there was no way that we could keep him. It is a waste because he is not committed to stay here for a period of one year.

Q: There are allegations that you continue to stay as the President of the Sri Lanka Tennis Association without the Sports Ministry approval?

A: I came into the position as President after having elections held at the Sports Ministry Development Department in June 2009. As the sports law very clearly says you need to get the Ministers approval only if you have completed two years. Therefore the question does not arise.

Q: What are the development work that have been taking place in the country during the last few months?

A: From my side we have gone and developed infrastructure outside Colombo starting from Negombo, Wattala and down South we went to Karandeniya. We also built up several other courts along Galle Road in few places.

Apart from that we conducted a coaches workshop to develop coaches in Sri Lanka and with regard to wheel chair tennis it started again under the supervision of Suresh Subramaniam.

Q: Do you have any sponsors for wheel chair tennis at the moment?

A: We are continuing with that effort although there is no sponsor. I think we are fairly OK compared to we were. But I think the next level we have given the task to the coach and one of the senior members to look into it and how we could go into the next level.

Q: Tournament wise what progress has the Sri Lanka Tennis Association made in the recent past?

A: We have had several international tournaments in Sri Lanka. This year we had four ITF tournaments. Then we got the highest number of teams which came to Sri Lanka where 29 teams participated in a junior event from 15 countries.

That itself shows that the ITF is very happy with Sri Lanka tennis. In all three events Sri Lanka qualified for the next level which was not the case earlier. So there is a progression on the player's side.

Q: How important is the upcoming Davis Cup tournament for Sri Lanka?

A:We are having the Davis Cup tournament next month where eight countries are participating. It will be played from the 15 to 20 of June. We have got two of our players who are based abroad Harshana and Oshada.

We also have a young player from Indonesia Vimuktha de Alwis. Together with Dineshkanthan and Rajiv Rajapaksa we are very positive that if everything goes well we could get into group two of the Davis Cup which is one of our aims this year.

Q: How popular is wheel chair tennis in the country?

A: Wheel chair tennis we do it in two ways. Firstly for Army and Navy then we have gone one step further to get the civilian side also. We are the only national Federation which is running a program for disabled soldiers.

To my knowledge nobody has done it. No other association has done it. We are the first and the only association which is committed towards the disabled soldiers.

Above all these boys have been trained to become officials. So when they officiate in international events they get money. The Sports Minister also promised that he would look into it and find sponsors.

Q: What is the expenditure in hosting the Davis Cup tournament in Colombo?

A: The budget itself for the Davis Cup is Rs. Ten million. We are only getting approximately Rs. 3.5 million from the International Tennis Federation. The balance amount we need to finance it.

I have also asked the Minister of Sports to release some funds from the Ministry because this is an international event and we are also looking at other sponsors. Somebody will ask why we are having the event here.

The reason been we need to play here to get the home advantage. We will be playing all matches on clay courts. The task has been given to Suresh Subramaniam to ensure that the courts are in good shape, good condition to suit our players. So that it will be slower not faster and that it will be conducive for Sri Lanka.

The second reason is that the Davis Cup is normally played in the month of April and because of that we have no chance of getting down the US players down. But as we were hosting we were able to select the dates so that we could have the services of all the US players for this event.

Q: Do you have any outside support in developing the game in the Provinces?

A: As far as the infrastructure development work is concerned we have done most of the work without the support of the Government. If we are to go into provinces and to broad base it we need the Government support like they are doing it to some of the elite sports.

At the end of the day this sport would ensure the children if they cannot go to the higher level at least a good education in the USA. In any other sport you may not get a scholarship but in tennis you are assured of a good scholarship to continue your higher studies in the USA. So tennis and studies goes together.

Q: What steps have you taken to improve the standard in coaching?

A: We carried out a level two ITF coaching certificate course where the ITF send their Development Officer and one more expert from the Far East.

We had one person getting qualified as Level Two coach, Niranjan Casiechetty.

There were about 15 who sat the examination and the others at least got the knowledge which is very important. The other point is that coaches in Sri Lanka should be registered.

There should be a very strict guideline from the Ministry to say that all coaches who are coaching in schools and clubs should be registered with the Sports Ministry and the national association.

It has to be on a renewal process every year. We can put some conditions saying that they need to see other places to get themselves acclimatized about the new things happening.

Otherwise what happens is that you will have a coach who has got a certificate ten or fifteen years ago and they continue.

They do not get updated with the latest techniques.

So we will be lacking behind the other nations. We need to have a continuous education on that and it has to be a certification based on every year renewal. This has to be looked at by the Ministry also not only for tennis but for other sports as well.