26 Jan 2014

A journey to uproot talent from grassroots by nurturing children aged between five and 14 years country-wide through the Junior Tennis Initiative Programme has started.

Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) in a joint venture with International Tennis Federation (ITF) and Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) has implemented the programme in Gaborone, Jwaneng, Thamaga, Selebi Phikwe, Orapa, Molepolole and Francistown. 

Every year, BTA brings in children from all over the country to introduce them to tennis and educate them on becoming better players who could represent the country in the future.

ITF has scaled down their equipment to make it easier for children aged between five and eight to play tennis. Tennis courts are reduced to small sizes while the balls are designed to reduce speed at 60 per cent.  

In an interview, the BTA sports development officer, Mthandazo Sibanda said they worked with teachers and parents to develop sports and their intention was to take tennis to the people.

He said despite challenges of scarce resources and expensive equipment, they had made some achievements.   He expressed concern that tennis did not form part of Botswana Primary Schools Association (BOPSA) structures and that made it difficult for them to get through to children.

“To make the programme effective, we are going nationwide to address the issue of volunteers” he added.  Currently, he said they depended on volunteers from Jwaneng and Molepolole.

BTA recently hosted the ITF Southern Africa Junior Circuit Championships in Gaborone which saw the 12- year- old tennis sensation, Tshegofatso Tsiang earning herself a scholarship at a Pretoria-based High Performance Centre.

The Association also encourages stakeholders to have development programs and organise tournaments at their clubs, he said. Sibanda said they were going to introduce monthly development tournaments in order to compare themselves with countries like South Africa.  ENDS