The President of the Namibian Tennis Association, Laurie Pieters says a lack funding and standardised facilities as well as the country’s amateur syndrome seriously hampers the development of various sports codes in Namibia.

In an interview with Informanté this week, Pieters stressed that Namibia has the potential to become a great sporting nation, but only if sport participation is made obligatory at school level. “Our young people are talented and there exist a number of sports codes ably administered, but a lack of funding and facilities hampers development efforts.”
Pieters pointed out that there are dozens of schools throughout Namibia with tennis courts which have become pieces of concrete filled with weeds growing out of them. “If government and the corporate sector would make funds available to rehabilitate these facilities, then the benefit  will be enormous, not only to school sport development, but to the surrounding communities as well.”
The former Cricket Namibia boss urged Namibia to distance itself from the amateur syndrome handicap in sports, which needs to be overcome if the country wishes to produce world class competitive sportsmen and women.
Focusing on tennis development, Pieters says there is an alarming shortage of tennis coaching throughout the country, especially in the regions where the NTA is not represented and active. Currently, NTA activities take place predominantly in Windhoek, Swakopmund and Oshakati. The NTA has embarked on a development programme that aims to reach to the whole country, however this could be improved if further funding is made available to put up suitable structures and encourage coaching at youth level, Pieters says.
“There must be a will from all participants to be involved, in addition to encouragement from the Ministry of Sports. If we lift the standards of coaching then wonderful progress would be made to provide opportunities for young players to break into the International Tennis Federation (ITF) rankings” Pieters urged.
This coming weekend the NTA will host the Alexander Forbes Open Tournament at the central tennis courts in Olympia. The semi and finals will be played on 8 and 9 June.