Now is the time to encourage young players

Dubai: At the onset, let me mention that the Middle East Sports Events summit held during the week was a huge success. Now, that’s going by the number and quality of top-level delegates who were present at the two-day event at the The Address, Dubai Marina.

Through the course of the event, there were some interesting and engrossing debates on various facets of sports, ranging from events sponsorship and marketing to actual preparation of bids to stage big events.

Yet another good thing was the approachability of the speakers and delegates. This gave the limited media present some good insights into the world of sport, while at the same time they were free to interact with other speakers.

Personally, I have no issues with organising such forums, symposiums and debates. Not only do these provoke thoughts on various topics, but they also give one the ability to seek a direction or tread a path that has not yet been followed.

But I still have plenty of reservations when it comes to actuality.

Let me explain. Tennis was one of the sports widely debated. So was golf, though possibly to a lesser extent. And this is where I seek to make a point.

The UAE’s most reliable tennis player is Omar Bahroozian, who is well past 30. The next one is Hamad Abbas Al Janahi, at least ten years his junior. And then there are a couple of 18-year-olds and other youngsters that essentially make up the UAE Davis Cup squad.

Dubai can be proud of organising one of the best tournaments on the men’s and women’s circuits in the Dubai Duty Free Championships. So can Abu Dhabi with its season-opening Mubadala Tennis Championship. But something was not done some time ago and the consequences are being felt now.

It’s a similar case with the golf scene in the UAE as far as youngsters are concerned. We will hear of the Al Musharrekh brothers, Khalid Yousuf and more recently the UAE junior squad, who won the GCC Golf Championships in Muscat. But where do we go from there? Is winning the Gulf competition enough for a country that possesses some of the best courses in the world? What about adopting a popular concept of making membership and training free for UAE juniors?

In tennis and in golf we need more players. How these are obtained is for the authorities to think about. Till then we may continue discussing and debating, but as long as there is no action, these will be mere words.

Something needs to be done right now.