DAVIS CUP CRITICISM

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 13

DAVIS CUP CRITICISM

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON.

The method of selecting the New Zealand Davis Cup team came under fire at the annual meeting yesterday of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association.

This is the second time the method of selection has been attacked at a council meeting.

Last November, at a quarterly meeting, Mr B. E. Souter (Wellington) criticised what he called the "premature selections” of the 1967 Davis Cup team and said then that the team should not be selected until the merits of the players had been tested on the New Zealand tournament circuit.

“On Merit”

Yesterday, at the annual meeting, Mr Souter, speaking for the Wellington association, said his association was “strongly of the opinion" that players selected for Davis Cup or overseas teams should be chosen on merit alone. Mr Souter also said the selection policy should be announced well before the opening of the tournament season. This could act as an incentive to players.

“In the past the policy has been obscure,” he said. The retiring chairman of the executive (Mr G. C. Reid) first brought up the subject of Davis Cup selection at the meeting when, in seconding the adoption of the annual report, he replied to a letter from the Auckland association.

The letter said the Auckland association was “disturbed" that the management committee had selected last year’s team, and not the national selectors.

Mr Reid said this year it was proposed to have a meet-

ing between the selectors and the management committee. “At that meeting the future policy for 1968 will be discussed,” he said.