A dispute between two national youth tennis players and the Tennis Association of TT (TATT) is expected to play out in court over their being left out of a national development programme for selection to two international tournaments.Attorneys for Yeshowa Campbell-Smith, 15, and Abba Campbell-Smith, 11, were preparing to file their lawsuit after they were excluded from participating in the national junior development and performance programme in preparation for selection for two world championships – the World Junior Tennis Championships (under-14 team) and the Junior Davis Cup (under-16 team).
Representing the children and their father, Darryl Smith, a former sports minister, is attorney Amy Rajkumar of New City Chambers.
In a letter on Wednesday, which served as a final warning before legal action was taken, Rajkumar complained that despite 2022 being a year of uncertainty, the two young tennis players represented TT in “ways no other tennis athlete from TT has.”
She said they were forced to navigate through the “uncertainty created by the TATT’s breach of duty and still managed to secure 15 international tournaments and 10 championships for TT.
Rajkumar said the duo satisfied the requirements to be selected for the programme and denying them the opportunity to qualify for the national team left the association open to expensive and embarrassing litigation.
“Not inviting my client to pre qualify for the national team selection is tantamount to non-selection for the national team.
“The TATT ought properly to exercise its discretionary powers given to the selection committee by the junior selection policy.
Allowing our clients to participate in the national training programme will only benefit the TATT as it will result in the best team being selected.
“Excluding two world-ranking athletes from the selection play-off will only be to the detriment of the TATT team being selected to represent Trinidad and Tobago.
“Further, acting contrary to the best interest of tennis in Trinidad and Tobago and the TATT is a glaring breach of the TATT’s constitution and will result in several fundamental breaches of the law.”
Rajkumar threatened to approach the court for an injunction unless the association reversed its decision to exclude the duo from the programme which was scheduled to take place this weekend.
In a response to the threat of legal action on Friday morning, TATT’s lawyer Clay Hackett maintained the association’s position as it relates to Smith’s children.
However, the association gave the undertaking to postpone this weekend’s event to allow Smith’s attorneys to file the proposed legal action.
In the letter, Rajkumar claimed that the children’s exclusion was based on their relatively low rankings due to TATT’s failure to host local competitive tournaments over the past two years.
She said the association’s website listed the local and international tournaments that would be considered in ranking athletes.
“The events used to rank athletes were not properly announced and/or hosted or
