Sports

Malinzi vows to overhaul local tennis body

THE National Sports Council (NSC) has underlined on its commitment to overhaul the local tennis governing body (TTA) and give it a national outlook.

NSC Chairman Dioniz Malinzi, reiterated on the importance of having a sports’ leadership that would put aside personal interests for the sake of national tennis development. The statement comes in the wake of heated ‘clean your house’ calls from various tennis development quarters that emphasize on the fact that election for TTA office bearers is long overdue.

He was speaking in Dar es Salaam this week during a familiarization meeting hosted by the association courtesy of visiting Egyptian tennis expert Hani Nasser, who is on a one week motivational tour of Tanzania tennis. Apart from facilitating the ongoing coaches and players training camp at the Kijitonyama Tennis Club, the Egyptian is expected to help the association set up a solid foundation for junior tennis development.

Unfortunately, the TTA has recently come under fire especially due to its failure to hold elections for 12 years, a situation that has impacted on its credibility as tennis officials are deemed to be using their respective posts for personal gain. And, Malinzi minced no words when he reminded the sitting interim leadership that his council would not just bask in the sun and pretend everything was in order at the TTA leadership circles.

He noted: “We cannot allow a situation where people are occupying leadership posts for personal gain. We must develop a structure that would at the ultimate give the national tennis association a national outlook to serve a 40 million Tanzanian population.

Then we can sit down together and discuss development from the national perspective.” Commenting on the coaching setup, Malinzi noted: “Again the anticipated TTA set up must be credible enough to develop a coaching certification programme where all tennis coaches are graded according to qualification. This would motivate coaches to upgrade their respective levels of education so that we have reliable professional coaches who are committed to the tennis development course.”