THE SRICHAPHAN FAMILY OF THAILAND

When I first arrived in Asia at the start of my tennis coaching career very few Asian players featured on the world tennis scene.  Michael Chang was about to emerge as a top player but he was never really considered a product of Asia.  His parents had left Taiwan for the US many years before and he developed his tennis in the US.  South East Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia and The Philippines had talented players back then but none that could earn a living on the main tour. 

Within my first few weeks of living in Thailand I remember going to the local tennis centre and watching the Thailand National Championships.  The final was between two eighteen year olds, Woraphol Thongkamchu and Thanakorn Srichaphan.  I was surprised how talented both these guys were. This early exposure to Thai tennis probably planted the seed in my mind that I would one day coach the Thai national teams.  I eventually had a long association with Thai tennis and captained the Thai Davis Cup and Federation Cup teams for several years.

The Srichaphan family was already a prominent feature of local tournaments.  Thanakorn the eldest brother played singles in the Thai Davis Cup Team and was ranked 1 or 2 in the country for many years.  Narathorn the middle brother was already a top ten junior in the world and eventually reached the quarter-finals at junior Wimbledon in 1990.  As Davis Cup Captain I would inevitably select two Srichaphan brothers for our ties against the other countries.

Paradorn Srichaphan was only six years old when I arrived in Thailand but I followed his progress in the local junior tournaments and he was obviously going to be as successful as his two older brothers. 

Behind the scenes was their father Chanachai Srichaphan who took his three sons to the court every morning before school started.  Chanachai was a tough task master who believed that hard work took you places in life.  He had been a bank clerk in Khon Khaen, nine hours drive north of Bangkok when his eldest son began to have some success in local junior tournaments.  Based on that success he moved his entire family to Bangkok to pursue the tennis dream.  They lived for many years in a hut beside a volley wall at the Bangna Tennis Club.  Somehow Chanachai, his wife, three growing sons and their grandmother lived in that one room hut.  It can’t have been easy but Chanachai had a dream and each son would later invest in that same dream.

I was privileged to watch Paradorn climb the tennis rankings until he became the 9^th ranked player in the world.  Perhaps my favorite memory however is watching Paradorn beat Andre Agassi on centre court at Wimbledon.  Paradorn out-hit Agassi from the baseline that day and thoroughly deserved his win, but it was his father in the players box that stole the show for me.  Here was a man who had risked all to pursue a dream that started many years earlier back in Khon Khaen, Thailand.  He had sat in the famed players box of the most famous court in the world and watched his son beat the defending Wimbledon Champion and a legion of the game.  The dream had come true for Chanachai.

I have been able to stay in touch with the Srichaphan family since the boys retired from professional tennis.  Thanakorn and Narathorn now coach, Thanakorn back in his hometown and Narathorn in Bangkok.  Paradorn enjoys a life as a local celebrity and is involved in a wide variety of projects, including a small part in a Thai movie as an ancient Thai warrior.  He is known and respected throughout Asia.

I was privileged to meet them early in my coaching career.  They are an amazing family who were fortunate to turn a dream into a reality.

MEETING THE NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: 1986

The phone went in my hotel room and the receptionist at the Tennis Centre informed me that there was a man wanting to speak with me. As the Tennis Director at the Hilton Bangkok it was normal for me to be contacted like this about problems from time to time.

The man I spoke with was apologetic, saying that he had broken one of our hire racquets while playing.  I assured him that it was not a problem and not to concern himself.  He then asked if I was a New Zealander, which I was, and explained that he was in Bangkok with the New Zealand Prime Minister and would I like to meet him? I thought how funny it was that I lived in New Zealand for 25 years and never meet the most important man in the land, but get the opportunity to meet face to face with him within 6 months of living in Thailand!

David Lange was a much admired leader.  He had grown up in a poorer suburb of Auckland, his father was the local doctor.  That alone must have singled him out as different to his peers.  As a young lawyer he gained a reputation for waiving fees if he felt his client couldn’t afford the bill.  As he became more prominent in New Zealand politics it was his sharp intellect and brilliance as a speaker that made him stand out from other politicians of the day.

David Lange will be remembered best as a leader during a time when New Zealand was starting to establish its own identity. He famously pulled New Zealand out of the ANZUS Treaty, a joint Australian, New Zealand and US defense pact and around the same time, banned all nuclear ships from docking in New Zealand.

At the designated time I made my way to the 5^th floor of the Hilton Hotel dressed in collar and tie.  I was ushered into a lounge area attached to the Prime Ministers suite.  When he appeared he was so low key and friendly that I was put at ease immediately. I expected a chance to merely meet and shake his hand but he sat down and we talked for the next 30 minutes.  He was a very warm guy and had tremendous empathy for the people around him.

Finally it was time to finish as he had another appointment.  To my surprise he asked me to follow him down to the hotel lobby, so down I went with the Prime Minister and his team.  When we stepped out into the lobby it had been cleared completely.  I again imagined that this would be where we would say our good byes but he kept me engaged in conversation and we eventually ended up in the centre of the lobby.  So there we stood, the Prime Minister and the Tennis Director chatting like old friends in the lobby with hundreds of on-lookers watching from the wings.

From behind the Prime Minister I noticed a commotion at the front door. Several important looking cars had just pulled up and the media were outside jostling for position.  Soon I was able to make out the person who was now entering the lobby from the far side.  It was the Thai Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda and he was walking straight towards us!  Prem was now about 5 meters away and with perfect timing David Lange stretched out his hand and thanked me for my time, wishing me good luck in my Thai coaching stint and simultaneously turned to greet Prem Tinsulanonda. 

I made my way out of the lobby and back to my room extremely grateful for the experience.

THE BAT BOYS SURPRISE PHONE CALL

The boys who entered the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme (BAT) were sometimes quite young.  They all came from good homes and as such were often a little naïve.  This was the case in most things but particularly when it came to girls.  When it came to girls our team of ferocious competitors were painfully shy.  One story helps to illustrate this.

It was quite late at night, I was getting ready for bed when a call came to our apartment.  It was one of the boys, breathless and obviously very excited.  “Sir, you must come, something terrible has happened”.  I asked what it was but kept getting “Sir, just come, just come”.  Robert Smith, my fellow coach at the program, and I couldn’t work out what could have caused such a reaction.  The boys were not allowed to use the phone without permission, and certainly not at this time of night.  Was it related to a boy’s health?  But if that was the case why couldn’t they explain that over the phone?  What could have happened to create such a reaction?

Rob and I walked the 10 minute walk to the BAT House where the boys lived.  We were trying to imagine during the walk what all this could be about and thinking that perhaps a flying saucer had landed on the BAT House roof!

When we rounded the corner on their street, two of the boys starting running towards us.  Faces white from shock and still unable to answer the question we asked “What was going on”?  Again the reply, “Just come Sir, just come”.  We entered the house.  The younger boys stood off from us, mouths open, eyes staring, breaths panting, we had never seen them like this.  One of the older boys said to us “You will never believe this Sir, you will never believe this” and led us to the back of the house to a locked room used by the house maids.  They had a table wedged against the door which they were also using to look through a small glass window high above the door.  “There Sir, look”!  Again, the whole thing was becoming a bigger mystery by the minute but we were getting closer to finding out what had disturbed the boys so much.  I got up onto the table top to peer in.  The boys had locked the door to the room so this was the only way to discover the mystery inside.  There inside the room, sitting on the bed was the BAT driver and a maid, looking thoroughly bored having been locked inside for what must have been the past 1 hour.  I was confused, “so what’s the problem”? I asked.  “See Sir, see, we caught them inside together”!

It was starting to become clearer.  Perhaps there was a romance going on between the Driver and the Maid.  They had been together in the room and one of the boys had discovered this.  To young Indian boys from a sheltered up-bringing this was tantamount to a wild orgy; this was a male in a room with a female, alone!

We assembled the boys upstairs for a talk.  It was difficult to decide whether the talk was to be a “Birds & Bees” talk or a “well done, you’ve caught the rascals” type of talk.  I think Rob and I decided on telling them that these sorts of things happen sometimes, we would handle it in the morning. 

The mystery had been solved and it was time for bed.  Another day in the BAT program was coming to a close!