Tanzania misses Zone 1V Junior tennis duel

FINANCIAL constraints have forced Tanzania to pull out of the forthcoming East and central Africa Junior Tennis Championship in Rwanda.

The Zonal junior tennis championship is set to be staged from March 4 to 8, this year, in Rwandan capital, Kigali. It was disclosed that the team won’t travel due to what is being described by officials as ‘lack of funds.’

Six players from Arusha, Moshi and Dar es Salaam were to travel to Kigali for the competition; the girls’ team was made up of Naitoti Single; Aureria Mushi from Rafiki Foundation of Kilimanjaro and Brightness Mollel from Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) club.

The boys’ squad consisted of Nicolas Mela; Rashid Ramadhan (Arusha Gymkhana) and Adili Nicas (Dar es Salaam Gymkhana) tennis clubs. The National Youth Tennis team mentor, Nicolas Leringa, said they have failed to send a team to Kigali because they don’t have funds to foot the team’s travelling cost, accommodation and allowances for the Kigali mission.

Leringa heaped blames to the Tanzania Tennis Association for being lenient in seeking funds to equip the team; “The Arusha Gymkhana has been sponsoring players to enable them compete in such events for many years because most of the players used to come from the club,” he said.

But this year, TTA was supposed to foot the trip, but they have failed to raise the required 1.61 million/-, a paltry sum. The East African Junior Teams’ competition for youth aged 12 and under is being organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) in Association with Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) and is scheduled to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, from March 4 to 8, 2018.

Teams from East African countries will take part in this 2nd Edition of the East Africa Team Competitions (Zone IV). East Africa will qualify one team for the boys’ category and one team for girls’ discipline. The Assistant Secretary General for the Tanzania Tennis Association (TTA) Inger- Johanne Njau wrote to the event organisers at the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT), informing them that Tanzania won’t send a team to Rwanda due to lack of funds.

“We regret to inform you that Tanzania Tennis Association will not be able to send the team for the U-12 tennis competition in Kigali due to lack of funds.

We have been debating on how to send the players, but have concluded that it is not possible to do it this time. We are sorry for any inconvenience may be caused,” this is what Njau wrote to the organisers.