(left - right ) Bailey and Dibbs
ONCE UPON a time, Jamaica produced the best table tennis players in the region. Unfortunately, however, that is no longer so.It has not been so for many years and, based on what is happening in the sport, it will remain so for a long time.
One reason for that is that Jamaica is lacking in talent - so lacking that it is almost a safe bet that when the Caribbean Championship scheduled for Guatemala from August 14 to 21 is over, Jamaica will be numbered, not among the top teams but among the also-rans.
Another reason is the problem in the fraternity - a problem highlighted by the controversy that has surfaced since the release a few days ago of the players, the male players, selected to the team.
CRYING FOUL
Shortly after the names were released, all hell broke loose with one player, Ludlow Bailey, questioning his non-selection and crying foul, with the president attempting to explain the reason for Bailey's non-selection, and with officials taking sides in what can only be described as an embarrassment to the sport.
According to Justin Allen, past president and now secretary of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA), according to Joseph Dibbs, president of the JTTA and one of those selected to the team, Bailey was not selected for the simple reason that he did not attend training sessions.
According to Bailey, however, he is the national champion, he is the number one-ranked player in the country, he finished second at the trials, and, as far as he is concerned, he was not selected because the president does not like him.
If it is true that Bailey was not selected because the president does not like him, then something is wrong. If, however, it is that the selectors - chairman Patrick Blake, Fuarnado Roberts and Donald Salmon, plus the two coaches from China - did not select Bailey because he did not, for whatever reason, attend training sessions and because he was not playing well enough to be an asset to the team, nothing is wrong with that.
In a country like Jamaica where all the players play in all the tournaments and, therefore, all the tournaments are the same level, the national championship is really just another tournament, and on top of that, and remembering that others, including Ernest Virgo and lefthander Courtney Wilson, suffered the same fate in the past, Bailey is not the first national champion to miss selection to the national team.
RECORD TO BE CONSIDERED
In questioning Bailey's omission, Bailey's record on and off the table must be considered.
Apart from his failure to practice with the national squad, and even though he says he has performed and that he is the best, Bailey has never distinguished himself while representing Jamaica, and, on top of that, his record of indiscipline is such that the selectors may well have decided that he has nothing to contribute to the team.
What is really interesting, however, is that apart from the player himself there are people who are also questioning the omission of Peter Moo Young.
According to those people, Moo Young, who is in his 40s, finished third at the trials.
He is, therefore, one of the best players in the country, and like Bailey, he should have been in the team - ahead of Dibbs, ahead of Darryl Strachan, who finished fifth, and ahead of Nigel Webb who was in China and did participate in the trials.
Like the 36-year-old Bailey, however Moo Young, the former first vice-president of the JTTA, the man who acted as president and who came into national representation late in life, has never distinguished himself in the national colours and although age, generally, should not determine selection to national teams, in a sport like table tennis, it is difficult, almost suicidal, to go for players of that age - especially when they are ordinary players.
The controversy over who should be in and who should be out has once again underlined the problems in Jamaica's table tennis, much of it is the fault of the JTTA, and unless its officers believe they are there to help themselves in terms of national representation and not the game, it is time the JTTA does something about it.
Apart from once again having a president who is also a player - a president who is among those contesting a place on the team and who, as an ex officio member of all its committees, can influence selection, the JTTA has a number of problems and, for a start, needs to answer three questions.
The first one is this: if Bailey's failure to attend the training sessions, his record of non-performance for Jamaica, and his record of indiscipline were the reasons for his non-selection, why was he invited to the Trials?
The second one is this: why did Dibbs, the president of the association, refuse to play Bailey in the Trials, and the remembering that it is normal for the Council to ratify the team, the third one is why was the squad released before that was done?
In the case of Dibbs versus Bailey, if it is true that president Dibbs refused to play Bailey because of a problem between them, then Dibbs should answer to the Council for his behaviour.
If the problem between Dibbs and Bailey was such that the president was not prepared to play a match against him, then Bailey should not have been in the Trials. He should not have been the opportunity to contest a place on the national team.
All things considered, the selectors are justified in not selecting Bailey to the national team.
It would be a sad day for table tennis, however, if the president, who refused to play one of his players at the Trials, who lost to Moo Young in the Trials, and who, despite the absence of Webb, finished fourth in the Trials, not only got into the team because of his position, but also, as Bailey claims, used his position to get rid of Bailey because of a problem between them.
The four male players selected to represent Jamaica in Guatemala are Christopher Marsh, Webb, Strachan and Dibbs. Hopefully the selection for a place in the team was not between Bailey and Dibbs.
- Tony Becca
