Summary
ANDY Murray's achievements on the tennis courts and the annual Wimbledon jamboree in which he has featured so prominently have led to the usual burst of enthusiasm from kids emulating their hero. Parks and playgrounds, side streets and back-courts have been marked out with squiggly chalk lines and, in the imaginations of the young athletes, transformed into the London suburb's legendary Centre Court.
It's the Wimbledon effect and it is always accompanied by a demand for government to put more money into tennis. The only difference is that because of Murray's success - and the dismal failures of other players - the cries to hand over more public money are louder this year. But getting out the begging bowl is not confined to tennis enthusiasts. In the past few days, there has also been a demand from the Scottish Football Association's chief executive, Gordon Smith, for politicians to invest more money in the game and, at the other end of the popularity scale, the North School Highland Games Association wants Alex Salmond to provide more funding for Scotland's traditional sports.See the full content of this document
Extract
Can we afford to court the next Andy Murray?
All of them have a case, though football clubs that have ruined more aspiring youngsters than they have brought on might have difficulty proving they deserve...
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