Ghana's number two seed Henry Adjei-Darko, who was reported to have been playing a hide and seek with the tennis authorities prior to the Davis Cup tournament, which ended on Sunday has said his action was as a result of poor treatment and the lack of motivation.
He told GNA Sports in an interview on Sunday after Ghana's 4-1 victory over Armenia in the Euro Africa Zone Two play-off at the Accra Sports Stadium that, ever since he started playing for the nation a couple of years ago, officials have promised the team training allowance, but this has never materialised.
"I'm told the money is approved at the Ministry of Finance, but when it gets to the Ministry of Youth and Sports nothing is heard of it," the 19-year old player said.
Adjei-Darko cited an instance before the Golden Rackets left the country for Slovenia for the Euro Africa Zone Two match in May. He said his father single-handily catered for his transport from East Legon to the Accra Lawn Tennis club each day plus other miscellaneous expenses just to keep him in shape for the tournament.
"The only thing I remember the Ghana Tennis Association (GTA) did was taking us to the Stadium canteen for 10,000 cedis worth of food daily," the player complained.
Adjei-Darko, who has just finished an ITF scholarship programme in Kenya and is preparing to leave for Spain for a similar programme, wondered why they were paid a higher fee whiles in Zone Three and less in Zone Two, which is more lucrative.
The player said, he remembered vividly after a Zone Three tournament, that each player took home 2,800 dollars. Ironically, the player said each member of the Ghanaian team was given 1,700 dollars after playing in the Zone Two tournament in Slovenia.
"These monies are even not enough because we have to spend a lot more in our tours to improve on our individual rankings," Adjei-Darko said.
What perhaps worsened matters was when the Rackets returned from Slovenia. Adjei-Darko told the GNA that he secured scholarship for one month but instead of the GTA working out his visa to enable him travel on schedule, they abandoned him.
"My father had to leave his job to ensure that I got my visa. The most annoying aspect was that, my father had to pay the visa fee himself, which is not the practice," the player said.
It took the intervention of Edward Osei-Kwaku and other top brass in tennis to coax the boy into playing. And when he finally did, Adjei-Darko won the opening singles match on Friday against Tsolak Gevorgyan 6-3, 7-6(7-2), 6-3 and partnered number one seed Gunther Darkey to win the doubles on Saturday 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Ghana's number two seed Henry Adjei-Darko, who was reported to have been playing a hide and seek with the tennis authorities prior to the Davis Cup tournament, which ended on Sunday has said his action was as a result of poor treatment and the lack of motivation.
He told GNA Sports in an interview on Sunday after Ghana's 4-1 victory over Armenia in the Euro Africa Zone Two play-off at the Accra Sports Stadium that, ever since he started playing for the nation a couple of years ago, officials have promised the team training allowance, but this has never materialised.
"I'm told the money is approved at the Ministry of Finance, but when it gets to the Ministry of Youth and Sports nothing is heard of it," the 19-year old player said.
Adjei-Darko cited an instance before the Golden Rackets left the country for Slovenia for the Euro Africa Zone Two match in May. He said his father single-handily catered for his transport from East Legon to the Accra Lawn Tennis club each day plus other miscellaneous expenses just to keep him in shape for the tournament.
"The only thing I remember the Ghana Tennis Association (GTA) did was taking us to the Stadium canteen for 10,000 cedis worth of food daily," the player complained.
Adjei-Darko, who has just finished an ITF scholarship programme in Kenya and is preparing to leave for Spain for a similar programme, wondered why they were paid a higher fee whiles in Zone Three and less in Zone Two, which is more lucrative.
The player said, he remembered vividly after a Zone Three tournament, that each player took home 2,800 dollars. Ironically, the player said each member of the Ghanaian team was given 1,700 dollars after playing in the Zone Two tournament in Slovenia.
"These monies are even not enough because we have to spend a lot more in our tours to improve on our individual rankings," Adjei-Darko said.
What perhaps worsened matters was when the Rackets returned from Slovenia. Adjei-Darko told the GNA that he secured scholarship for one month but instead of the GTA working out his visa to enable him travel on schedule, they abandoned him.
"My father had to leave his job to ensure that I got my visa. The most annoying aspect was that, my father had to pay the visa fee himself, which is not the practice," the player said.
It took the intervention of Edward Osei-Kwaku and other top brass in tennis to coax the boy into playing. And when he finally did, Adjei-Darko won the opening singles match on Friday against Tsolak Gevorgyan 6-3, 7-6(7-2), 6-3 and partnered number one seed Gunther Darkey to win the doubles on Saturday 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
