Pat Cash fears Tennis Australia is stuck under the leadership of an “old boys club” and has called for the new chief executive of the organisation to allow former stars to have a greater voice in the development of grassroot athletes.
It has only been a week since Craig Tiley announced his resignation as chief executive of Tennis Australia, having accepted the same role at the US Tennis Association.
Tiley had been in the top job at Tennis Australia for over two decades, with his work frequently receiving praise from those who played at the Australian Open.
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But the next chapter of Tennis Australia is one Cash hopes has some changes, especially when it comes to developing the nation’s next champion.
“Unfortunately the basic issue is we have an old boys club at Tennis Australia and it’s been there for way too long,” the tennis legend, who is currently coaching Li Tu part-time, told reporters at the Launceston International.
Pat Cash in the Royal Box at Wimbledon. Corbis via Getty Images
“We have nobody on the board of Tennis Australia who’s ever played tennis.
“When you’ve got all businessmen who have no experience in player development, I don’t believe we’re getting the opinions of the experts that are here in Australia.
“We’ve got a dozen of them who have coached or played in Davis Cup and are super experts, and yet businessmen get hired.
“We’ve got absolutely no tennis acumen in the board, or player development. There’s a new CEO and tournament director coming in, it needs to be someone involved in tennis.
“We had no wins, boys or girls at Wimbledon juniors, we had one round win at the Australian Open which is the weakest junior grand slam … it’s a concern.”
Australia has had the joy of watching Ash Barty and Alex de Minaur have great success over the past decade, but there is a perceived lack of young talent coming through.
Alex de Minaur plays a forehand during a training session at Ken Rosewall Arena. Getty
If it was up to Cash, the first step for the new chief executive would be to find stronger coaching staff for all local kids playing grassroots tennis.
“We are the only major tennis nation who doesn’t have any tennis players on the board,” Cash continued.
“It clearly indicates what their priority is – to make money.
“And you need to make money. You can’t have player development and these tournaments without money, but there’s got to be some middle ground somewhere.”
Cash added: “It’s almost horrifying what I see in coaching. We need better coaching at the grassroots level.
“Australia is isolated, we need some international people and a businessperson is not gong to be able to understand that.”
The 60-year-old still has faith that there would be plenty of tennis greats and experts who would be willing to help the next generation if asked to.
He just simply hopes Tennis Australia is not ignorant to reach out to those former stars and seek a “fresh pair of eyes and ideas”.