Great Britain suffer humiliation

British performances have usually been reviewed after the two weeks on the lawns at Wimbledon but now the Davis Cup has highlighted the obvious lack of depth within British tennis.

Great Britain’s 3-2 loss to Lithuania on Sunday was a hammer blow to the LTA, who will now have to reflect on another failure and be exposed to even more anger from British tennis fans and tax payers alike.

Dan Evans five set defeat in the deciding rubber will result in Great Britain needing a win against Turkey to survive being relegated to the football equivalent of the Conference.

This is a sad sight considering that in February 2008 we had the chance of making the World Group before being outclassed in Buenos Aries by a strong Argentinean outfit.

The sudden decline may shock some viewers but for many including the LTA knew this impending void behind Andy Murray was eventually going to be exposed.

It is clear that without the British no.1 and world no.4, Britain are particularly light in numbers, with only four other men inside the top 300.

So where should the finger get pointed?

Firstly, I refuse to blame the likes of James Ward and Evans who fought tooth and nail for their country in what was a narrow defeat.

There display’s demonstrated that they have the heart for the battle, especially Evans, who showed signs of great maturity in taking the pressured deciding rubber to a tense deciding set before just falling agonisingly short.

Nor even captain John Lloyd, who suffered his fifth straight defeat as skipper. Although his record does not bode well for a renewed contract in September and will most likely depart sooner rather than later.

But it is the heads at the LTA that must shoulder the burden for this disastrous defeat.

The likes of LTA Player Director Steve Martens and Chief Executive Roger Draper should be the ones that suffer the consequences for THEIR failure.

They must realise that losing to a team like Lithuania is inexcusable, considering their lack of pedigree within the sport - not forgetting their distinct difference in funds available.

The amount of money soaked up in the LTA is unbelievable. For instance many of the hierarchy within the corridors of the multi million pound National Tennis Centre probably earn more than the resources available to successful Lithuanian team (£90,000 a year).

Meanwhile, the LTA has wasted millions, upon millions in their failed pursuit to get five players in the top 100 by 2008 (set in 2005) and 500,000 juniors competing (currently 30,000).

How do you expect tax payers to react when £27 million of their money is being squandered in the hands of people who are clearly unable to input it into the correct areas.

Big decisions need to be made and the right people need to stand up and leave or else the British game will be unable to escape this terrible rut that it finds itself in.