By Tony Becca - On The Boundary 
A FEW WEEKS ago, Jamaica Table Tennis Association president Justin Allen promised a concerted effort by the association to lift the standard of the game following Jamaica's poor showing at this year's Caribbean Championship in Puerto Rico.
Already he is making a move - and a good one at that.
On Friday and Saturday, the JTTA will be staging a Tri-nation tournament at the University of Technology's auditorium and that, without a doubt, is a good move - certainly for a start.
In any development programme the key is participation, coaching and competition. In a bid to get participation, however, motivation is also important.
Motivation some times comes from watching good players in action, and based on the credentials of those coming from Barbados and England, there should be some good players on show.
Coming in from Barbados will be Trevor Farley, Abbie Clarke and Robert Roberts. Coming in from England will be Andrew Rushton and Jamaican-born Gareth Hubert and Garen Brown.
Although they are not numbered among the best in the world, although they do not boast the credentials of world rated players like Dragutin Surbek of then Yugoslavia, Kjel Johannsen of Sweden, Jacques Secretin of France and world champions Istvan Jonyer of Hungary and Stellan Bengtssen of Sweden who paraded their skills in Jamaica during the Lovebird tournaments of the 1970s, they should be good enough to parade the kind of skills that should provide good entertainment for the fans and motivation for youngsters.
Barbados, for example, won the men's team title in Puerto Rico, Farley, Clarke and Roberts were members of the team, Farley won the men's singles title, and Roberts is a former champion.
The real interest, however, surrounds the players from England.
Hubert, a member of England's winning team at the Commonwealth Games in August, is ranked No. 2 in England; Blake was a member of England's team at the 1997 Commonwealth Game and 19-year-old Rushton is ranked No. 6.
Remembering that Desmond Douglas was ranked No. 1 in England, that at his best Orville Haslam - the man who defeated Commonwealth champion Trevor Taylor one memorable night in the National Arena - was ranked No. 5 and how brilliant they were, this trio should be quite good.
The Tri-nation event will hardly arouse the interest of the fans as the Lovebird tournaments did or even as the visit of the Chinese did in 1973.
It is, however, a start and it could develop into something big - a tournament that will attract and motivate youngsters, that will excite and push the players towards excellence and that will provide the level of skill and the kind of entertainment that will bring back the fans and therefore win support for the game.
