National coach smashes JTTA boss

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

National table tennis coach, Collin McNeish, has lashed out the Jamaica Table Tennis Associatioon (JTTA), after being asked by the local governing body's president, Keith Garvey, to resign with immediate effect.

In lieu of Jamaica's performance at the just-concluded Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation (CRTTF) Championships, which ended at the University of Technology on friday night, Garvey mandated all national coaches to hand in their resignations.

But McNeish, who was in charge of the men's team, blames the president for the team's failures.

Championships

"He (Keith Garvey) is looking for somebody to blame," said McNeish. "It's his association's fault (for poor performance)."

Jamaica finished second in the men's team event, but third overall in the championships behind winners Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

"Garvey is doing a very poor job and all the players are frustrated with him," added McNeish, who said Garvey refused to address problems pointed out to him.

"Garvey doesn't know anything about table tennis.

"He thinks that you just get some players, train them for a week and you will win championships ? it's not like that," the coach continued.

"When I started training the men's team they were rated at number six in the Caribbean and now they are second place ... so I don't see what all the excitement is about."

Lack of preparation

He added: "I don't think it's a coaching problem because all the junior players that he is talking about was coached by me, except for two. He is just looking for someone to blame because he has done nothing for table tennis in this country."

One of the problems McNeish identified was lack of preparation for tournaments, but Garvey replied: "We don't have all the resources to send people on 10 or 15 weeks tours for the year.

"However, what we were able to do this year was to send six youth teams to international tournaments," he added, stressing money is limited.

"We were in camp three-days a week for one year and if we can't finish first or second then think about it," Garvey said.