Pay to play: Table-tennis players slam national body

VETERAN Trinidad and Tobago women's table-tennis player Rheann Chung and a men's national player, who wished to remain anonymous, have knocked the TT Table Tennis Association (TTTTA) over what they say has become a pay-to-play national selection policy.

They said the association’s inability to raise funding has resulted in national athletes having to pay for airfare, accommodation, meals, ground transport and other associated costs to represent the country at overseas competitions.

In an e-mail to Newsday, Chung, a five-time Caribbean singles champion, said the national body is not functioning as it should.

She said before the 2024 Caribbean Championships was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in April, the association sent out guidelines about funding to the selected players.

"The TTTTA will make every effort to fully or partially fund your participation in this event," the association said.

"Should the TTTTA’s funding efforts be unsuccessful, you will be required to fund yourself and upon request, the TTTTA will provide you with letters to support your fund-raising efforts."

Chung, who attended the championships, said all the players eventually "had to seek their own sponsor or funding in order to go to Santo Domingo. National representation has become a pay-and-go system! The TTTTA does not care to send the best players."

Chung said TT did not have its best team as a number of top players said they could not go.

After the Caribbean Championships, Chung said coaches were reimbursed, but not the players.

"The senior coach (I guess it is the same for the junior coaches) received a full refund, that is all his airfare and accommodation...while the national players received a partial refund of about two and a half times less refund than the coach."

With an AGM scheduled for January 11, Chung wants to see a new administration running the sport.

"I would hope for a serious, passionate and fair new leader with a group of officials who would absolutely put the players first," the 2014 Latin American Championships bronze medallist said.

She said the association needs to rely less on government funding in the future.

What does she want to see from the winner of the TTTTA election?

"A leader who would make sure that the national players are not spending their own monies to represent TT and to make sure if they do that, they are fully refunded.

"One who could activate all officials into being self-sufficient by doing fund-raising events and not only depend on the government funding and/or by sending out letters for sponsors hopelessly."

Chung said she wants to see a new leader "save and put table tennis in TT on the right path."

The accomplished men's player had similar concerns.

He has not travelled with TT teams in the past because he was unable to raise the funds for airfare and other related costs.

"I have missed tournaments due to a lack of funding and I did not want to put out money out of my own pocket," he told Newsday.

He said national championships struggle to gather corporate support, but smaller competitions do.

"This year, our national championships, which is our most prestigious local tournament...it was unsponsored, and for all the years that I have been playing table tennis they always had sponsors for your national championships."

He said at times the prize structure for national championships is not revealed. "Some of the top players will want to know what they playing for."

TTTTA: We're doing our best

In a response to Newsday, president of the TTTTA Shellyanne Wilson said efforts are always made to gather sponsorship for the athletes.

Wilson, who has been in administration for almost two years, said the association explores all options. "In the selection letter we indicate that we don't have funding to cover the team and we will do what we can in order to facilitate getting sponsors. We write letters. Maybe you can ask me which company we did not write to."

Giving an example, Wilson said the association had contacted Caribbean Airlines. "Last year, we went to Caribbean Airlines to get a special rate. We have left no stone unturned in terms of trying to get funding to send teams (abroad)."

On coaches getting fully refunded for overseas duty instead of players, Wilson said the intention was to reimburse everyone in full.

"We try as far as possible to be as fair as possible. The situation is, we don't get 100 per cent funding from the government. We make all attempts to get sponsorship. We even tried to do our internal funding. The last (event) we had was a bingo.

"When the decision was taken to cover the coaches, we had not yet received the grants that we were expecting. We are expecting to receive these things, but that was not the case. That was not forthcoming."

Wilson claimed one national player told the fraternity to boycott the bingo event.

She acknowledged that the association has been unable to pay back athletes for the 2024 Caribbean Championships.

However, she said she is disappointed that a player would go to the media to criticise the association as this would make potential sponsors more hesitant to fund table tennis.

"These types of things where they want to make it a scandal only hurts the sport...

"Why would a corporate body want to associate their brand with a sport? Instead, they can adopt a school, they could clean a beach. There are so many other things you can do with your limited sponsorship money.

"You are asking for us to be able to find sponsors – is this helping?"