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Nastase not worthy of ITF presidency

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Posted: Thursday July 01, 1999 11:33 AM

Time is a funny thing in sport. It makes the average good, the great greater and can even put a rose-colored tint on the most scandalous of memories. How else can the former "Mr. Nasty" of tennis, Ilie Nastase, even be considered as a candidate for the presidency of the International Tennis Federation?

The 52-year-old Romanian, who's managed to parlay his celebrity into the presidency of his own country's tennis federation, is one of the seven candidates due to be voted on at an election next week in Holland.

Candidacy is his democratic right, of course. And he does have some good ideas, such as asking former stars like Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg to create a player's council to represent the player's interests in the decision-making process. But is this the person the sport wants to have the ultimate sanction?

For those minus the years or the memory to recall Nastase in his heyday, may I point out that he was then regarded as the scourge of the game. A gifted player with an eccentric personality, which at its best was revealed by playful antics -- such as sharing a sandwich with the courtside spectators -- and at its worst by the kind of spiteful gamesmanship that was surely as close to cheating as any player has ever come.

The idea that such a mercurial personality could ever be placed in charge of the game, would have been considered madness in those days, tantamount to the lunatics taking over the asylum. But that was then.

Now, 20 or so years since Nastase was last a major player in the tennis world, the Romanian's lunacy, once regarded as subversive, is looked upon with nostalgic affection. Old Nasty, what a lad he was.

It's not just Nastase whose behavior has achieved a warm glow over time. What about John McEnroe? The oh so serious American, who was convinced nobody else could be, was once regarded as a pariah. Defaulted from tournaments, docked who knows how many points, McEnroe was the tennis equivalent of the anti-Christ back in his heyday.

Now, gray-haired and eloquent, McEnroe is regarded by many as the oracle. You want to know how the modern game should be run? Ask Johnny. He'll give you chapter and verse, because he's been there and done it at the highest level. Never mind that while he was there he wielded his celebrity like a sledgehammer, challenging and denouncing virtually ever rule in the book. He was just being a personality, and besides, he's mellowed.

Indeed, time appears to be a great healer wherever you look. Jimmy Connors for example, inspired by his mother, was painfully petulant in his swashbuckling youth.

Then, in his later years on the tour when the modern game was passing him by, he metamorphosed into Jimmy the comic, the crowd's favorite wisecracking gunslinger.

Now a major force behind senior's tennis, he's treated like a favorite uncle wherever he goes. In short, the years when he was the biggest bully on the tour are now long forgotten.

The question is, does tennis really want people who couldn't adhere to the rules of others suddenly being in a position to hold the whip hand? I mean, place yourself in the position of today's youngsters. Putting the game's former rebels in charge essentially says to the new generation of stars, "Do as I say, don't do as I did." To which any self-respecting youngster would say, "Kiss my backhand." And rightly so.

So let's see Nastase, McEnroe, Connors and the like taken for what they are -- colorful and entertaining relics of an era when it was good to be bad. They should not govern because as much as their tennis legacy is awesome, in terms of discipline, they cannot command respect. Handing them the reins of the future would in my view just be hypocrisy.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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