i saw some. they really were not that bad just them with pizza boxes and bottles of beer. and their status saying i love gettting drunk thats all but if they have terms which include nutrition then it is pretty bad to post it all over internet
Yes i have seen the pics, In my opoinion naomi broady and david rice and others e.g steph cornish,jack carpenter are a complete disgrace, you dont even get that type of lifestyle from young footballers so why in tennis? which is considered one of the most upper class sports in Britain, david rice looks like he is some kind of ghetto kid not a top40 junior player in the world.
This type of lifestyle is why we cannot produce top class junior's like other european countries, not because of eduactional commitments. Players like broady and rice just do not have the same desire and commitment as other european juniors. Lets face it the only reason why Murray is so good is because he went to barcelona away from binge drinking party lifestyle of britain. But at the end of the day its there lives not ours and if they want to destroy a once in a lifetime oppotunity and spend the rest of there lives playing 10k's thats up to them. The LTA have made a fantastic decision withdrawing the funding. Lets just hope the junior players can learn from this and so it ends up with a positve outcome. A more senior player that our juniors should want to aspire to have the same attitude is jamie baker, who despite not being blessed with a top100 game he is making the most out of what he does have.
Theyre bad pictures but the reaction is too harsh, lets alienate 2 of our youngsters, make them public scapegoats. Can anyone else say knee jerk reaction?
Can we be sure that it is a sudden reaction? If they are frequently hung-over when turning up for practice, they may already have had warnings.
These are not very young children misbehaving. They know what they are undertaking when they accept LTA funding. It is no good saying that they are "just being teenagers", by accepting the funding they are agreeing to do all they can to become top players - and binge drinking is not the way. An occasional lapse may be excused, and though I have not seen the pages myself (now locked) what has been reported of them sounds as though they were revelling in their bad behaviour.
I don't think it's knee-jerk at all. In fact I think it's the opposite.
This has been brewing since Wimbledon but I think the LTA was conscious of trying not to appear to be pandering to headlines so deliberately held off a public display of draconianism for a few months. I suspect that Rice and Broady (either specifically or as part of a global LTA missive) had been previously warned that LTA funded players' behaviour was under scrutiny.
If this is not the case then the only explanation is that the LTA are very deliberately trying to be seen to be very hardline. Assuming that this does deter some of our potential top-1000 players then it will still be justified if it motivates a small proportion of players to be top-100.
This is a really tough one. I wish it was not splashed all over the papers like it is....if Rice or Broady make it I think it will come up all through their careers like Tim's poor ball girl which is a shame....I think there are expectations to be met when you accept the gift of LTA funding, but at the same time these kids are young, often away from their homes, friends etc....they are not doing what their friends are doing....
I remember when I was in college, it was tough, living on peanuts, studying hard while my friends worked and had money. This must be tons worse. They need an outlet, but they clearly were not thinking getting that drunk and posting pics online.
This reminds me in a kind of way to the incident where Alex Furguson heard that some of his players were at a party and so went round to drag them out of it. yes it seemed harsh, but he expects a well disciplined team and gets results. Being a pro sports player is a huge sacrifice in many ways and that is especially hard when all your friends are starting off in all different directions and you see the opportunities that they're having. Our juniors are young (by definition) so yes it's tough on them, but this kind of discipline is needed while they're young. The scale of the publicity is regrettable; i'm sure less notice will have been taken than with other recent incidents like flintoff and the pedalo etc, but it will undoubtably be a card for journalists to play in the future. If these players are worth their hype then they will prove it with their results in the years to come.
I dont understand why so many people are sayingi ts a knee-jerk reaction? Jonathon Overend when first reporting it on 5-Live explained that the reason these two had been picked out over others was that they have past history and this was seen as the straw that broke the back. If thats not true then fine, but its what was reported when the story broke.
Can I also remind everyone that they haven't been banned from tennis, they have not had there arms and legs broken. They have had their LTA finacial support withdrawn. They are now in the same position as hundreds of other foreign tennis players. If they want to make it they still can but they have to do it on there own.
If they fade away and quit the game six months from now will people blame the LTA for destroying their careers? If so how can people so consistently say that the LTA do nothing when the two would have stuck with it ONLY with their support?
I have expressed similar views on this board before and been sneered at as the LTA in disguise. Nothing could be further from the truth, there is much wrong with the LTA for sure. But there is also stuff wrong outside of that body, such as players attitudes on accassions and I just cant understand that no matter what a player/coach does wrong, no matter how consistently its done, the LTA are held 100% soley responsible.
For the record, I hope (and belief) that David and Naomi sort themselves out and re-prove themselves. If so, I am sure there support can be re-instated and I am sure it would be. David has not progressed anywhere near the way he should have this year. This action could be the key that stops him being another talented Junior who dosen't convert his attributes to the senior game, and one that goes on to have the full and successful career he is capable of.
Withdrawal of LTA funding does not mean the end of a person's career, Boggo had his funding withdrawn back in 2004, and not only did his career survive, but he has (in relative terms) thrived. If their careers do collapse, then perhaps it would prove the LTA were right to withdraw their funding.
David has not progressed anywhere near the way he should have this year.
That's true. At the start of the year the top four juniors were all around the same level, but Cox, Evans and Dyce all seem to have moved forward while I've hardly heard about Rice for months.
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Like Ed, I really liked the pics on Broady's facebook page....I think we should have a site whip-round to put it back up again 
