Petchey Shows His Interest In Replacing LTA’s Draper

Written by: Staff on 4th January 2013

Brisbane International tennis tournament

Petchey Shows His Interest In Replacing LTA’s Draper

epa03523750 Andy Murray of Great Britain returns the ball during his quarter final match against Daniel Istomin of Uzbekistan during their quarterfinals match at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, 04 January 2012. EPA/DAVE HUNT AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Mark Petchey is known as one of those people with a deep knowledge of British tennis. Now one of the most vehement and consistent critics of the Roger Draper-led and much harangued has offered to do the Chief Executive job himself at a fraction of the $640,000 salary that was recently termed “obscene” and “worse than the most excessive payments to bankers”.

Petchey is currently one of the nation’s most respected and in demand television commentators and the 42 year-old is also a former Davis Cup and ATP World Tour player, an ex-coach of world no.3 Andy Murray while still being close to the Scot and a deep thinker and planner when it comes to grass roots tennis.

Draper has been chief executive of the LTA since 2006. Only the LTA board has the authority to replace him and an LTA spokesman said there was “absolutely no prospect” of this happening.

However Sport England’s recent announcement that three years of LTA funding for grassroots tennis will be withheld until participation figures improve has renewed the examination of Draper’s leadership.

“If the LTA board agreed with my vision for British tennis, it’s a job I would want to do,” Petchey told BBC Sport. “This would be a massive 24/7 job, but seeing British tennis succeed has always been a passion of mine. And I would do it for substantially less than Roger received last year.”

Petchey makes no secret that he would change things enormously at the LTA state of the art headquarters in Roehampton, just a couple of miles away from the All England Club. The LTA had an average of 311 employees in 2012, spent about $20 million on salaries and about $1 million on pension and insurance costs. It also spent $20 million on top-flight performance tennis.

In Petchey’s vision, spending would be very different and he said: “Very basically, the LTA needs to focus on grassroots, not the elite end of the game. The lion’s share of its money should be directed to the bottom of the game rather than the top.

“So that means investing in clubs and coaches, building more courts and indoor courts and broadening the participation base, looking at schemes like tennis for free. It also means improving the links between local clubs and schools.

“France, Spain and Germany all have a very good club structure but there aren’t enough people playing the game in the UK. The salary bill at the LTA is huge and millions have been pumped into performance tennis, which hasn’t provided value for money.”

Petchey has a powerful supporter in Baroness Angela Billingham, the chairman of the British government’s All Party Tennis Group. She called Draper’s salary ‘unthinkable’ and said: “The report from Sport England means what the LTA is doing, or failing to do, is absolutely unacceptable. The people who can hire and fire are the board of the LTA, but I see no sign whatsoever that they are moving to even chastise Roger Draper.

“I call on Hugh Robertson, the Minister for Sport, to set up an urgent review and inquiry into British tennis. He must insist on transparency of all expenditure and salaries, especially given the LTA receives public money – taxpayers’ money.”

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, British tennis news, Davis Cup, Lta, Mark Petchey, Sports, Tennis