Council tells tennis players to follow procedures

Sports Council has advised disgruntled local lawn tennis players to follow proper procedures before seeking council’s intervention on their attempt to push the Duncan Gumbi-led Lawn Tennis Association of Malawi (LTAM) executive committee out of office.

This is in response to the letter titled ‘Declaration of vote of no confidence in the entire LTAM committee’ which at least 60 senior tennis players from Blantyre, Zomba, Lilongwe and Mzuzu signed and presented to the council about two months ago.

The players, who want early elections by a year, pointed out scarcity of competitions for senior athletes as one of the main reasons for their petition.

But in an interview Tuesday, Sports Council executive secretary George Jana said he has advised the concerned players to first write to LTAM asking for an annual general meeting where their concerns could be discussed.

“Of course, the players have presented a valid case, but as stipulated by the (LTAM) constitution, the council will only intervene if their association does not respond to the said letter within 21 days,” said Jana.

Chairperson for the concerned players, who requested for anonymity, said they would present the letter to LTAM within this week.

On his part, LTAM president Dancan Gumbi, whose committee has so far served half of its two-year term of office, said he is presently tongue-tied about the issue as he is yet to get an official statement from the council.

“I will come back to you once I meet Mr. Jana within the week,” said Gumbi.