AUST. TENNIS DISPUTE Strange Accuses Other Nations

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30389, 13 March 1964, Page 16

AUST. TENNIS DISPUTE Strange Accuses Other Nations

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, March 12. The president of the Australian Lawn Tennis Association (Mr Norman Strange) today accused other nations of having triggered the dispute between Australia’s top players and officials.

Mr Strange said that Australian players would not be in such a hurry to go overseas if other countries stopped “dangling money in front of them.”

“There is no doubt that 'shamateurism’ is rampant in some foreign countries, but we can’t prove it,” Mr Strange said. “There is also no doubt that some of our leading players go overseas early in the year to make money,” he added. The maximum daily expense allowance in Australia is £A6 5s and the L.T.A.A. in-

sists on rigid adherence to this limit.

The L.T.A.A. pays expenses to Australian players only during Davis Cup maitches and national championship tournaments. At other tournaments the expenses are met by the State associations, ■the employers or the players themselves. Regulations Broken Mir Strange cited the Caribbean tournament circuit as one area where players were receiving higher expenses than the regulations allowed. Two of Australia’s tennis “rebels,” R. Emerson and K. Fletcher, are now competing in Caribbean tournaments. Three others—M. Mulligan, Miss J. Lehane and Miss M. Schacht—are playing in Egypt. Mr Strange said players had admitted openly that they went to overseas tournaments in February and March to pay for their world tours later in the year. ‘ “The federation is letting down those nations which want the game controlled according to the rules,” Mr Strange said. He added that Australia was often, by-passed by touring players from other countries because the L.T.A.A. would not make “under-the-lap” payments to visiting stars. “We have suffered all sorts of criticism, and we have missed out on visits from topline overseas players simply because we enforce the regulations,” he said. Stolle Applies

Mr Strange said the L.T.A.A. would consider an application by Stolle to leave on March 21 to play in the Monte Carlo tournament. He said he thought it unlikely that the council would approve the application. Stolle, the only one of the five original tennis “rebels” still in Australia, last night denied he had promised the L.T.A.A. he would stay home until March 31. Mr Strange said yesterday Stolle had promised him during a talk at the national hardcourt championships he would stay in Australia until April. Record Bid.— Donald Campbell has decided on the second or third week of May for making his attempt in Australia on the world land speed record. —(P.A.-Reuter.)