The chair of the All-Party Tennis group has criticised the salary of Roger Draper, the chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, who receives £640,000 a year, describing it as 'unthinkable'.Last week, for the first time Roger Draper's salary details were published. On Monday, Sport England cut the LTA's funding, criticising its plans for increasing participation.
"It's unthinkable that someone earning four times more than the Prime Minister has not got ideas for the shake-up of the sport," Baroness Billingham said.
"You don't give bonuses for failure, surely, and a priority has to be placed on grassroots sport.
"The LTA is one of the wealthiest sporting organisations in the country and it's my honest and genuine opinion that they are useless."
The details of Draper's salary published by the LTA last week shows that, He received a basic wage of £349,000, a bonus of £201,000 and a pension contribution of £45,000. This means an increase of £52,000 from his salary in 2011 of £598,000.
The figures were released days before Sport England announced its decision to withhold three years' funding from the LTA for grassroots tennis.
The number of people playing tennis once a week has fallen from 487,500 in 2008 to 445,100 in 2012, and Sport England decided to give the LTA just one year's funding of £7.1m.
"This report from Sport England means what the LTA is doing, or failing to do, is absolutely unacceptable," added Baroness Billingham, who is urging sports minister Hugh Robertson to demand a meeting with Draper so he can explain himself.
"The people who can hire and fire are the board of the LTA, but I see no sign whatsoever that they are moving to even chastise Roger Draper."
Sport England chief executive Jennie Price said a further £10.3m could be available to the LTA if it proves it has credible plans for how to improve participation in the sport.
"We need to give them a year to step up their game and prove they can deliver it," she said.
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