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!

THE CRAZY GUY FROM KOREA

The best time to visit is May when the blossoms are on the trees and luscious strawberries can be bought on the street

During May the mornings are crisp and the days bright and sunny

The Korean guy in the front row was losing control. 


It was 1991 and Beijing was the venue for the Asian Games.  We were playing for at least a Mixed Doubles bronze medal and Thailand hadn’t won an Asian Games medal in tennis for almost 40 years! Personally, this was the biggest match of my tenure as Thai National Tennis Coach.  

The Thai team of Wittaya Samret and Orawan Thampensri were in a match with a typically tough Korean team.  You can always count on Koreans to make it a battle.  They are always in great shape physically, mentally very strong and always 100% committed.  


I had encountered the Korean attitude in many events prior to this.  Players from Korea could sometimes over-step the boundary of what was considered good sportsmanship sometimes.  This didn’t make them any friends on the tennis circuit and I had even witnessed Korean coaches physically abusing players several times.

I’m not sure whether or not the guy in the front row was a coach attached to the team or not, but he was calling instructions between each point.  The rules of tennis clearly state that you can not communicate with the players in any way during the match, either verbally or with signals. 


Several times he had been warned about communicating with the players’ during the match but he continued to do so.  


I caught his attention and asked him to stop talking to the players.  He replied that he was not “coaching” the players which, even if true, didn’t alter the fact that he was communicating non-stop with them.

News of the match had also now spread to other sporting venues in Beijing and the Thai media covering the Asian Games started arriving at the tennis venue in anticipation of a rare tennis medal for Thailand. Every Thai television channel was represented and all the Thai newspapers were there. 


I already knew all the Thai media people from other events we had played and they had always supported me personally and written favorable articles about my work with the Thai team.  For them and me, an Asian Games medal was the icing on the cake.  

But there was still the matter of this crazy Korean guy in the front row!  As the Thai duo began to dominate, he got more and more irate.  Once again I asked him to stop communicating with his players.  This time however he began climbing the seats in front of me with the clear intention of punching my head off my shoulders!  As he climbed over the first row and made his way up to my seat he continued shouting abuse at me, the blood vessels in his neck bulging and his face turning purple. 


The media guys around me began sensing a much bigger story than the Thai Mixed Doubles team picking up a bronze medal!  Camera lenses were poised for the biggest scope of their fortnight in Beijing. I could visualize the headlines in Thailand the next day announcing “Thai Tennis Coach Involved in Brawl at Asian Games”.  


Thankfully other more sensible Koreans in the group had a firm grip of his jacket and pulled him back to his seat.  Several from the Thai Media were claiming “He was going to pick a fight with you”! Still concerned about newspaper headlines the next morning I deflected their concerns by down-playing the whole incident.  


Thankfully Wittaya and Orawan did win Thailand’s first Asian Games tennis medal for 40 years. 

For years after Beijing I never traveled to Korea.  I guess my early experiences put me off going there, believing that the place would not be that friendly and the people difficult.  When I did actually go there several years ago with players I was shocked to find one of the prettiest countries, and the friendliest people you would wish to meet.  What a contrast!  


Today it would be my first pick of countries to live.  However if I ever did live there I might have to keep looking over my shoulder for that crazy guy from Beijing!

THE KITE BOY

Whenever someone asks me to describe India I usually say “You either love it or hate it, there’s no in-between”.  India is a place where joy and sadness walk hand in hand.  This story illustrates both the sadness of the place and also the resilience of the people who live under the poorest conditions there.

Sunday was a day off at the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme (BAT).  After a long week of training both the boys and the coaches were glad of a day away from the courts.  I really enjoyed Sundays because it meant a sleep in, buffet lunch at the Connemara Hotel and a walk home through the tree lined streets.

There was one Sunday when I remember spending the morning down at Marina Beach with some of the boys flying kites.  Kite flying is a favorite pastime for boys in India, but particularly the kite fights between boys.  The tradition is that boys coat their lines with a mixture of finely ground glass and a type of wax like glue.  The strategy is to cross your line over your opponent’s line, cutting it before he cuts yours, and win the dog fight.

This Sunday there was a large group of young boys from the nearby slum the playing with us.  Every time one of the lines was cut the kite would float down the beach some considerable distance with the wind, and would be followed by boys of all sizes racing to collect it.  This was ok by us because the alternative was us retrieving the kite ourselves!  On this particular day one boy was always first to the kite and we would reward him with a few rupees.  As the day wore on most of the other boys gave up and went home but the “Kite Boy” continued to stay, and collect his reward!

When it came time to go home we were all getting ready to enter the van, changing sweaty shirts and brushing sand off ourselves.  I changed my T-shirt and handed it to the “Kite Boy” as a gift.  His eyes lit up when he realized he was being given my shirt, a white one with a large tennis logo on the front.  Finally we were in the van and on our way home. Eventually we forgot all about the “Kite Boy”.

On normal training mornings we used the beach for fitness runs before the boys went to school.  Starting at 6:10am we would run the length of the beach and back again, quite a tough run in the soft sand.  I was to be leaving India in a short time after 2 years coaching there.  There wouldn’t be too many more of these runs left for me.  

 On this day we had completed our run and were preparing to journey back by van to the BAT house.  As usual, there were several beggars around the van with us asking for money.  None of us took money to the beach for runs so we were ignoring them and while some of the boys were completing their stretch, others had already boarded the van.  I was just entering the van when something that was said made me stop.  One of the beggars had grabbed my attention.  I turned to the boy and asked “what did you say”?  He repeated “my friend sir, he asked me to tell you”.  “Who is your friend” I asked, still confused.   “You gave him a T-shirt sir”.  Then I remembered our day on the beach almost 10 months before.  The Kite Boy who had been our companion that day and had worked so hard to retrieve the kites.  “My friend sir, he told me to come and tell you” the beggar boy repeated.  “Tell me what” I asked.  “He wanted me to tell you he was dead” the boy said proudly, knowing he had my attention now and that I was interested in what he was saying.  I froze on the spot, “what do you mean, tell me he’s dead”? I asked.  “When my friend was lying in bed dying he asked me to find the foreign man who gave him the t-shirt and tell him he was dead”

When I did finally enter the van the boys could see something was wrong.  My face must have been white.  Several of the boys asked me what was wrong.  After I explained what I had been told, and they had remembered the kite boy all that time ago, they too fell into silence, stunned by the sadness of the story.

Even today, when I think of the small boy who had so much life on the beach that day I feel deep sadness.  But perhaps the saddest part of the story is that my one act of kindness concerning an old, sweaty t-shirt was remembered as a highlight in that boy’s life. So much so that he had asked his friend to find me one day and recount his last days alive so that I would know that he was dead.

TENNIS COACH FIGHTS WITH BLACK BEAR

The team of Sharad Kohli, Ameya Chandravakar, Paul Dale, Zubin Engineer and Vikrant Chadha

It was always necessary to have a local coach attached to the tennis program in India.  Many times getting things done was impossible for a foreigner and we needed the “expertise” of a local.  At the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme in the early 1990s this person was Zubin Engineer.  Zubin came into the program around the same time as I arrived.  What he lacked in playing ability he made up for with his commitment to the boys and the program and very soon he was an integral part of the team. 

He would sometimes travel to tournaments in India with the boys and go to extraordinary lengths to make sure the boys were looked after.  On one trip he returned to Madras from a two-day day train journey having traveled back in the carriage reserved for stock!  Tickets had been impossible to acquire so he and the players had sat in the straw beside the animals. During his first few nights back home in Madras blood ran from his mouth as he slept on his side.  A visit to the doctor revealed that he had developed a stomach ulcer from the stress of the trip.

On a trip to Lucknow once the train had just departed Madras Station and everyone was settling in for the arduous two day journey. About 30 minutes from Madras Zubin approached me, his face white with anguish. He had lost the bag containing the money for the entire trip!  If you have never been onboard a 4^th clathe ss, non-air-conditioned carriage in India you can’t imagine the chaos.  People and bags are everywhere.  Finding an elephant would be difficult but trying to find a small bag with thousands of rupees would be almost impossible.  Zubin and I starting walking through the carriages (were we even heading in the correct direction?).  About 5 carriages into our search I noticed a guy sleeping with a bag poking out of his pillow.  I called Zubin over and pointed at the bag.  The relief in his face told me we had our bag back!

Most Zubin stories however were more humorous.  On another trip away from Madras, Zubin and the boys would cut through the local zoo in the mornings on their way to the tournament venue.  This was the best time to see the zoo because it was not open to the public yet and Zubin’s team had the whole zoo to themselves! Each morning they would enjoy their detour and eventually got to know the animals quite well.  There was a huge black bear that would always be sitting at the fence watching them walk by.  Most impressive was the huge claws of the bear, which could be clearly seen wrapped around the metal bars.

One morning our team of tennis players stopped to examine the bear a little closer. Zubin had an idea; he took out one of the tennis racquets from its bag and tapped the bear on the claw. No response from the bear.  Zubin tapped some more. Suddenly, and as calm as you like, the bear trapped the head of the racquet with his claw.  Zubin pulled the racquet to free it but the bear held on.  Most annoying was the fact that the harder Zubin pulled the more calmly the bear held on.  Several of the boys held Zubin around the waist and pulled in unison. Still the bear held on.  This scene continued for several minutes, Zubin and the boys trying to release the racquet from the bear in the early hours of the morning in the deserted zoo. Finally, more through boredom than anything the humans had done, the bear released the racquet. 

I often wondered what the zoo keeper would have thought if he had arrived at work that morning and found the bear holding onto an expensive $200 tennis racquet!

FUN WITH THE LANGUAGE & THE THAI NATIONAL ANTHEM STORY

Girl holding a donation box in a Bangkok mall

The huge billboard on the expressway to Bangkok’s old Don Muang airport always made me chuckle.  I could picture the Thai workers diligently putting it up in the hot sun, but not really knowing too much about its message.  The picture was of a muscular guy standing proudly in his underwear, six pack tensed and with the caption below reading “MEN  SUNDERWEAR”. 

For several years I entered my apartment block where a sign on the front door asked those who entered to be “QUITE PLEASE”.  This was a sign brought from a business supply store and I can only imagine that several thousand of these erroneous signs were sold around Thailand. 

I often wonder why many of these businesses didn’t have the English checked before putting signs up in public, like the restaurant near my home with the street sign out front saying “BOND STEET STAEK HOUSE” and the donation box for stray street dogs announcing “MEN’S BEST FRIENDS NEED HELPS”. 

Another donation box I saw recently in a local department store asked people to “DONATE TO THE MENTALLY RETARDED”!

Some advertisements can be so politically in-correct as to be off the charts.  Like the advertisement in the back of a motor-rickshaw in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Some entrepreneurial people had got their hands on discarded rocket launchers from the war and created a unique business.  The sign in the rickshaw read “ROCKET LAUNCHER FIRING RANGE: YOUR CHOICE OF TARGET, CHICKENS OR COWS”.  I only hope the cow at least had a chance to run away.

Some food menu’s can really make you think twice or at least consider what you are about to eat.  The “NOODLES (THICKEN SOUP)” sounds tasty but may have been tough to swallow.  

For years my name appeared in Davis Cup programs and on my team tracksuit as Pual Dale.

But the laughs can happen both ways.  I have also had my share of embarrassing gaffs with the Thai language.  

I was presenting tennis awards to a large group of young players once and announced a girls name incorrectly.  As soon as I said her name I saw a horrified look descend over the entire gathering.  Instead of pronouncing her name correctly I had mixed my tones up (Thai is a tonal language) and instead of saying her name I had described the act a lowering a coffin into a grave.  Not a good thing in ghost sensitive Thailand!

I also got things horribly wrong many years ago when I was learning to speak Thai.  I was particularly keen to learn the Thai National Anthem so that I could sing along with my players at the opening of International tennis events.  

My wife taught me The Thai National anthem which I was able to memorize ok, but I didn’t know the meaning of the words.  

The first chance I got to actually perform the song to a live audience was in Pakistan for Davis Cup.  Both teams were assembled along one service line and the national anthems were played while the crowd stood silently as a mark of respect.  As the Thai National anthem started up I was pretty confident I could go through the whole song without a problem.  I could also sense that some members of the crowd were watching me to see whether or not this foreign coach could speak Thai or knew the words to the national anthem. 

I began to sing but immediately realized the words I was singing were not the same as the rest of the team.  The player to my right< Narathorn Srichaphan,  gave me a sideways glance which caused me to stop singing.  

It turned out that my wife had taught me the words to a children’s nursery song which went something like “Chang, chang, chang, chang, chang, nong koey hen chang lue plaow”? This roughly translates into “Elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant, elephant, young boy have you seen an elephant before”? Very embarrassing at the time!

So, while I see Thais' butchering the English language all the time I think back to my embarrassing  first attempt at the Thai National anthem knowing that it's not an easy think to learn a second language!