Ndanusa frowns at tennis facilities

The quality of the courts available for tennis at the Abuja National Stadium aptly shows the kind of disdain certain sports administrators in the country have for the game,Sani Ndanusa,President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation[NTF] has said. Indeed all the hard court playing surfaces at the stadium complex were hastily put in place by organisers of the Abuja 2003 All Africa Games.The games organising committee COJA had initially refused to include tennis in the list of sports for the continental showpiece.It was later included after much pressure and the Nigerian tennis team went on to win 4 gold to silence its critics. Ndanusa told nigeriasports.com in an exclusive interview Sunday that lack of a befitting centre court and sitting terraces at the available ones had been responsible for the low turnout of spectators at the venue of the tennis competition of the sports festival. "You can see for yourself how can anyone enjoyt watching the game of tennis this way, there are no sitting terraces,"he began."In fact they didn't want us to play tennis here at all.At least that was what they intended doing with their initial refusal to allow tennis to be part of the All Africa Games. "How do they want us to encourage the youths to take to tennis or groom future stars when they can't even provide the basic facilities,not only basic but modern. "The other day we were in Cairo for the African Junior Championships,the Egyptians have 25 courts within the sporting complex including a magnificent centre court.So tell me how would their players not have an edge over our own.Here at this stadium we are using only a fraction of the 25.In fact there was a little hitch as regards this festival,the centre court had to be done just yesterday[Saturday] and we started playing on it this evening." Ndanusa however expressed delight at performances put up so far by players at the festival which has 6 gold,6 silver and equal number of bronze at stake each of the men and women's categories. "The primary reason why we're here is to see talents hitherto hiddenin all the nooks and crannies of the federation,some of which cannot come out on their own ,but through competitions like this you'll be able to see them.We have our technical crew with their eagle eyes looking at what we can get oput of this tournament. "I can assure you I have seen for myself the good talents,some unassuming but they are playing very well.So we'll pick them and package them for further support."
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