Synergy of a Centre of Excellence

The Pakistan Tennis Federation held it’s AGM last week. Chaired by President Kaleem Imam, the meeting was the usual round of politics and inanities. Some overly ambitious members were expelled and in a show of clemency were accepted back with open arms.
Kaleem Imam had made a promising start to his reign as president PTF. He had raised the status and prestige of the players, improving their lot. Whereas in Dilawar Abbas’ time, players had to walk several miles a day just to eat meals, Kaleem arranged meals catered by five star hotels. While this may not go very far in improving tennis in Pakistan, certainly the intent was positive, something that was completely lacking in the previous motley few who had victimised and nepotised Pakistan tennis into oblivion.
Kaleem has been posted overseas and will only be coming to Pakistan sporadically. The PTF secretary has meanwhile pulled a disappearing act, rarely venturing out of his native Quetta. In Kaleem’s absence, the PTF reins have been handed over to Brig. Saleem Nawaz, a top class hockey player who also utilises his blazing speed to play a very effective doubles game in tennis. Saleem Nawaz is moreover a sportsman and will have the interest of the sport in mind. His main problem will be to sort through the disinformation and obfuscation created by the remnants of Dilawar’s atrocious regime. Should he sort out these people, he will be well on his way to making a success of it.
Having attended several PTF meetings, there is always talk of spreading the sport far and wide, all over Pakistan. Unfortunately, that is not within the resources of the PTF. Additionally, if one studies the success stories of other countries, it is seen that they focus their development work around Centers of Excellence. Spain has Barcelona, the USA has the Tampa area where the Nick Bolletieri’s and the Harry Hopman Academies put the world’s most promising young players through their paces. Similarly, France has the Moratogliu Academy. What happens is that the top players all congregate at these locations. They have good coaches, excellent facilities and a great support structure. This synergy of effort converts talented plays into world class professionals.
Pakistan had one such Center of Excellence, the Coaching Center at Bagh-e-Jinnah Lahore. This center was the home of tennis in Pakistan and produced most of our top players. Any good player could go and train there and had to pay next to nothing. That center has been ruined by the past Punjab LTA. They built fast hard courts instead of the beautiful grass courts that had so much history behind them. So called coaches now started preying on the unsuspecting children and extorting large sums of money with promises of stardom. The late Choudhry Farooq who ran the Coaching Center for so many years with the able assistance of Bashir A Gill, would have been aghast at what has happened to his pride and joy. The Coaching Center can still be taken back to its former glory but requires dedicated management which the current people in charge of Punjab tennis are neither equipped nor in the mood to provide. Their sole focus seems to be to build as many synthetic hard courts as they can in the shortest possible time.
Karachi has a coaching center, but with Saeed Hai around all one can say is that nothing grows in the shade. Hai at one time refused to let the world renowned schools tennis initiative programme come to Karachi unless he was paid half the salary of the coordinator. He has managed three PTF votes and continues to pressure the PTF in every possible way. Karachi seems to be a lost cause.
Where PTF can make a difference is to make the PTF complex in Islamabad a Center of Excellence for tennis in Pakistan. Were they to open three new cans of balls everyday and let children come and play for free, they would see large number of children on the courts. Balls are the major expense once a player has bought his racquets. There should be a stringing machine where any boy can go and string his racquet for free. Even shoes such as the Servis Cheetah may be provided. This is not a huge cost, around Rs1,000 a day.
The center should be a home away from home for all players. They can come here, stay in the rooms and get free food. Every weekend there should be a camp at the complex, starting on Friday afternoon and finishing with a tournament on Sunday afternoon. Players from all across the country should be invited. This will create the synergy type situation that we had discussed earlier. On Sunday evening there should be a barbecue party with fancy dress etc just to make it fun and to induce kids to come back. Tennis is a very enjoyable sport. By holding camps for too long and working the kids too hard, we make it seem like work.
Unfortunately, however, the remnants of the previous regime are least interested in this sort of activity. They are not tennis players and their only goal is to get as much benefit out of tennis as they can. Were they told to organise this programme, they would make sure it failed. On the other hand there are people willing to put forth the effort, gratis, but refuse to have anything to do with these people. That is the Catch22 and that is where tennis rests. Brig. Saleem Nawaz has the right attitude and credentials to start something like this and he will have the help that he needs but first he will have to sideline the profiteers as no tennis expert in his right mind would want to deal with these people.
Tennis is a wonderful game. Developing tennis is not rocket science. We have a wonderful facility built by Waseem Sajjad although the name was hijacked by the hapless Dilawar Abbas. The courts are a major issue. Apart from the four training courts, the rest of the courts are no good for learning. For training, a player needs a court where the ball has an even, consistent bounce so that he can engage in long rallies to groove his strokes. The way the present courts are, every third ball is a bad ounce, so the players simply cannot take a consistent swing at the ball. This serious issue has to be addressed. It is better to have hitting partners than coaches who have half baked ideas about the sport. This is absolutely crucial. No correction to a player’s technique should be made without consultation with a knowledgeable coach or internationally, over YouTube. This is the way coaching is done. Videos are made and are sent to specialists who analyse and present advice and solutions. We will support Brig. Saleem Nawaz in this very worthwhile endeavor. All he has to do is free tennis from the professional PTF office holders who have brought tennis to this sorry pass.