The Times and other media

Spectator · All-time great

The Times and other media

indiana · Tennis legend

I am sure they are ( must be ! ) doing some things right but it is a pity that that is in amoingst all the other ( censor time coming again ) bull**** they come out with.

Gee, maybe they are even doing quite a lot right but they present themselves so badly by trying to present themselves so well.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 24th of February 2011 02:46:48 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

I'm not trying to defend the LTA, but Indy if you were in charge would you be entirely honest and be saying I am doing a crap job, fire me now, I am completely clueless etc., etc.,. No you wouldn't so he is just trying to defend his record which is just about impossible.

indiana · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

I'm not trying to defend the LTA, but Indy if you were in charge would you be entirely honest and be saying I am doing a crap job, fire me now, I am completely clueless etc., etc.,. No you wouldn't so he is just trying to defend his record which is just about impossible.

Of course I wouldn't say that Phil. But the amount of laughable contradictory crap that come sout of that guy is beyond a joke.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Fair enough Indy, I won't be expecting you to become his PR guy anytime soon then !

Count Zero · Tennis legend

I'm sure we'd all try and hang on to our jobs if we were i the same situation, but that still doesn't stop us from complaining about it from the outside. Who actually has the power to sack Draper though?

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Telegraph on draper:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/8357708/Roger-Draper-fails-to-turn-British-tennis-around-after-five-years-and-250m.html

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Interesting paragraph on Draper in OEM's report in today's Times:

"You would think that a victory - any victory - would be reason enough for Roger Draper, the LTA chief executive, to share his thoughts with those other than the suits in the presidential suite. He is, after all, paid around £400,000 to run the sport, but he chose to go mute on us yesterday. It may be because he is worried we would ask him why he dismissed the members of this weekend's team as "a generation we always knew we would to skip", when he came into office five crushingly ineffective years ago. (my italics)

Nice one, Neil!

philwrig · Hall of fame

Is Draper the most hated executive in professional sport ?
I often find with the media that if people in sports are on good terms with them then the articles written about them are more positively expressed. Here is clear evidence of that in reverse, Draper and the media pack are on such poor terms that when any articles are written about the LTA they stick the knife in a bit deeper. Articles written about KP in cricket are also similarly expressed due to his poor relations with the press. On the flipside in Football I find that articles written about Harry Redknapp are much more positive than they should be due to the love felt for the Spurs boss by the media core. Similarly now Kenny Dalglish is getting alot of love now for the same reason. The media are sometimes not as objective as they should be. Draper has had an unsuccesful tenure in alot of respects but reading all the reports in the media this weekend would make you think that he was by the far the worst head of the LTA we have ever had. Unless my memory is fading I can't remember any head of the LTA who has had a sucessful tenure.

indiana · Tennis legend

I am afraid I am unable to rush to the support of the Dodger here, since Phil so recently decided that I was distictly unsuitable to be the devil, I mean Dodger's PR guy smile

I just don't know how Phil came to that conclusion

philwrig · Hall of fame

I'm not supporting him, I'm just saying the criticism is overdone.
Is it not true that the womens side has improved markedly since he became head of the LTA ?
Is it not true that we have the best crop of young juniors we have ever had ?
Yes the senior mens side is in a shocking state rankings wise and it was very poor to say that we always knew we were going to have skip a generation.
But overall I don't think it is 100% doom and gloom, which is the way it is being portrayed by the press.

steven · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

I'm not supporting him, I'm just saying the criticism is overdone.
Is it not true that the womens side has improved markedly since he became head of the LTA ?
Is it not true that we have the best crop of young juniors we have ever had ?
Yes the senior mens side is in a shocking state rankings wise and it was very poor to say that we always knew we were going to have skip a generation.
But overall I don't think it is 100% doom and gloom, which is the way it is being portrayed by the press.

I'm inclined to agree. There are still loads of things that are wrong, but if I remember right, previous LTA chief execs have been even more ineffectual - or at least that's what the media implied at the time. wink

The media need to balance their articles (and encourage better behaviour in the LTA) by acknowledging improvements as well as criticising all the failures (like we do, I would claim!), or not be surprised if the powers that be can't be bothered to talk to them any more.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I agree 100% steven . Everytime I read a tweet from Neil Harman about the LTA I am a little saddened in its onesided nature ( as I am a big fan of OEM) it almost seems like a personal attack. We need to work together to bring the best out of our tennis. It can't help when our players read all these negative stories about the state of British tennis. We are all working towards the same goal, so please British media, yes don't ignore all the negative stuff but also don't forget to report on the good news as well.

indiana · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:

I am afraid I am unable to rush to the support of the Dodger here, since Phil so recently decided that I was distictly unsuitable to be the devil, I mean Dodger's PR guy

I just don't know how Phil came to that conclusion

For clarification, re the "don't know how Phil came to that conclusion" bit I was actually kinda jokingly ( in my mind ) just meaning conclusion that I wouldn't be a suitable PR guy for Dodger ( I admit I am not his biggest supporter ). Maybe a wink would have been clearer than a hmm.

I was not there challenging Phil's previous post and I'm sorry if I left it open to that interpretation and Phil then felt the need to say more.

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 8th of March 2011 04:26:24 PM

steven · Tennis legend

Tim on Golding, Broady, etc - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-1368560/Our-teens-soft-blasts-Tim-Henman.html

No doubt he has a point to some extent, but I wish he'd take this up constructively with the players concerned instead of putting the boot in through the media.