“I would give this year 6½ out of 10”

Dec 18, 2008 Sports

Says GTTA General Secretary

Godfrey Munroe

By Edison Jefford
An unusually disappointed Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) General Secretary, Godfrey Munroe has given the association’s performance this year a 6½ out of 10 rating after citing local inactivity as a reason.

In a brief interview with Kaieteur Sport yesterday, the candid Munroe said that the entity was unable to get off its schools’ programme, attend the ongoing Caribbean Table Tennis Championships and spread the game.

“A lot more things could’ve been done. I don’t think we truly exploited all opportunities to expose players. Our players performed but we needed to look at local development more than we did,” Munroe believed.

“From a player’s point of view, I will not be satisfied [with our performance this year]. A lot of things fell out of the way. I would give this year a 6 ½ rating out of 10,” Munroe continued around noon yesterday.

The GTTA General Secretary, who is also the national men’s champion, was obviously aggrieved when Guyana did not ascertain the necessary sponsorship to attend the current Caribbean Championships in Jamaica.

“Not attending the Caribbean Games was unfortunate. I know that our girls’ team would have medalledour boys would have done well too but there is a nexus between players and sponsorship that we didn’t tap,” he said.

The GTTA is not known to have struggles with funding because of the business structure they incorporate into their administration. They continued that tradition at their elections this year when Anil Nandlall became President.

However, Munroe believes that some amount of nonperformance has taken place among the Executives of the GTTA. He said it is time to openly address those issues that has also resulted in underproduction this year.

“One of the other things is getting people [Executives] to put aside sides and work in a more harmonious way. We had a good elections but it has become evident that we need to get more people involved,” he contended.

Despite the stumble, Munroe told this newspaper that they recorded decent success at the Commonwealth Games in India, in Columbia and the US Open. He observed that the body needs infrastructure at the local level.

“Another bugbear was infrastructure; we need infrastructure to influence players to play; we need to have competitions to go places,” the General Secretary informed, adding that they have procured an equipment contract.

According to Munroe, an Indian company is to supply the GTTA with a quantity of table tennis equipment, which will enhance the association’s reach. He is anticipating a higher rating at the end of the next year.

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