adminBhunu who has been TZ’s vice-president for the past three years takes over from Ann Martin who stepped down after completing two terms in office.
The new executive will run the country’s tennis affairs for the next three years and Bhunu was under no illusion over the “mammoth task’’ ahead of his executive as they try to improve the standards of the sport.
“We want to embark on a building programme of increasing the numbers of junior players in competitions. That definitely means we will increase tournaments in provinces. We will be working with the provinces.
“We need to sit down with the provinces and give them an outline of what we expect them to do. First thing we will try to have junior coaches going into primary schools.
“We are fighting to take a big thrust to move into the Davis Cup. If we go to the World Group it means we can host other international events, it can help our tennis to be attractive and it can help us in terms of awareness and sponsors coming in to support us,’’ said Bhunu.
The newly elected president said the major problem that has seen the standard of tennis declining is the failure by the national association to transform junior players into professional players due to lack of resources.
That worrying lack of resources has meant that in most cases parents have become the sole sponsors for their children to play tennis, a development that could also slowly drive the game into an elitist sport for just a minority.
Bhunu said they are hoping to continue holding international events and revealed that 23rd Century Systems have come forward to sponsor a Futures events , pledging US$40 000 for the event in October.
Martin Lock, who was a board member in the previous executive came in as the vice-president. He was also unopposed.
Vincent Nyatoti, Beverly De Souza, Kuda Muhwandagara and Rutendo Chabururuka make up the rest of the board as members.
Apart from elections other issues that were discussed were the president’s report, audited financial reports and the application for affiliation, which saw Matabeleland South becoming an affiliate to the national association.
The coming in of Matabeleland South means there are now six active provinces including, Harare, Manicaland, Bulawayo, Midlands and Masvingo.
TZ administrator, Cliff Nhokwara said they are going to work with the incoming province to align their activities with the rest of the affiliates.
“Matabeleland South affiliated but we have to work with them to set up structures to align to all the other provinces.
“It’s encouraging, we now have four more to go. Hopefully by the end of this year there will be another province ready to be part of the set up. We will be happy to have all the 10 provinces active,” said Nhokwara.
Online Reporter