ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Shahida Kausar Farooq, a well known tennis organiser and Chairperson Subh-e-Nau, on Friday slammed the policies of Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) and said they were not in anyway promoting the game in the country.

She alleged that the current PTF management is not doing anything for the benefit of tennis but rather only for the benefit of some favoured individuals.

Citing the example of a juniors tournament beginning from Saturday, Shahida said that PTF had announced this tournament just two days ago due to which a significant number of talented and deserving players could miss the event.

She stated that the organisers should announce these events well in advance and inform all known players to make their participation possible. “We are receiving calls from players and their parents from remote cities of Pakistan who stand to miss this tournament because they cannot travel to Islamabad on such a short notice.”

She also criticised the role of PTF for its lack of effort in producing more tennis players as well as grooming of competent officials.

“We have only two active white badge umpires in Pakistan and both of them reside in Islamabad,” she pointed out.

“We had to postpone our feature event, the National Clay Court tennis, due to the high demands of officiating fee from these officials.”

Shahida asserted that there should be at least two to three such officials in all major cities of Pakistan to minimize expenditure of organisers and benefit players.

Commenting on the Annual General Meeting of PTF, which is going to be held in Islamabad next week, she said that there are 14 units of PTF and despite three or four active units, others remain non functional.

“These units are not being banned and they just get their votes,” she lamented.—Agencies