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What is the reality of life as a black or brown tennis player in Britain? This is not a story of outright marginalisation. Numerous BAME players – from Heather Watson to Arvind Parmar – have built lengthy professional careers. There is even an argument – advanced by the black coach Justin Layne – that juniors from a minority background may be more likely to be noticed and supported. “People think black men are faster, rightly or wrongly,” Layne told the Sunday Telegraph. “And governing bodies are always looking for good athletes.” The issue is more one of belonging – or a lack of it. A high proportion of elite tennis players tend to be outsiders, often the offspring of first or second-generation immigrant families. Yet the people who run the game are drawn from a narrow demographic: white, middle-aged and middle-class. Eight or nine years ago, a couple of coaches went to Yorkshire’s county Lawn Tennis Association with a plan to set up a regular clinic in a predominantly BAME area of Leeds. “The response was positive,” said one of those coaches, “but then one of the councillors said ‘What are we looking at here? What’s the selling point? Hip-hop tennis?’ And you realise how much further there is to go.” This tendency to stereotype people or groups is something that Josh Ward-Hibbert is well placed to comment on. Now a professional shooting guard with the Leicester Riders basketball team, Ward-Hibbert used to be ranked among Britain’s ten best juniors, once achieving a record service speed of 133mph during the Wimbledon boys’ event. But after a series of injuries in his early 20s, his ranking stalled just outside the world’s top 500, and he decided to go to university instead. “Growing up, the difference was obvious,” said Ward-Hibbert, who is 26, and has realistic ambitions of representing England in his new sport. “Tennis was the Caucasian sport and basketball had a lot more black kids playing. So while issues of race and prejudice have been in the news a lot over the last few weeks, this is a subject that I have dealt with for the majority of my life.
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