Axing of head coach sparks members’ revolt
ONE of Britain’s most exclusive tennis clubs is facing a members’ revolt after a world class racquet player was axed as head squash coach.
Pakistan-born Zubair Khan, 45, a former world number eight, had been employed as a professional coach at the Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club.
But last month a row broke out after officials at the 117-year-old club in Hampstead, west London, made the father of four redundant from his post after 18 years in the role.
Although Mr Khan will be able to remain at the club as a squash coach on a self-employed basis, he will lose a £1million grace and favour apartment he shares with his wife and family at the clubhouse. Now members have accused the committee officials of “putting him and his family onto the street”, while Mr Khan, who was appointed to the role of head squash coach in 1999, is thought to have hired a lawyer to fight the decision.
The club was used by stars including Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastase to practise ahead of Wimbledon and among its members are Emma Thompson, the actress, her husband Greg Wise, plus Downton Abbey actors Jim Carter and Imelda Staunton.
Next week an extraordinary general meeting is to be held in which members will vote on a motion demanding the coach be reinstated as an employee at the club where fees cost £850 a year. They also said the club should permit Mr Khan to continue living in the apartment and to reimburse him in full for any legal fees.
In a letter, Simon Curtis, CLTC club chairman, said: “A package was drawn up to look after Zubair and his family which included a payment to him many times more than the statutory minimum and allowed him a significant amount of time to find alternative accommodation for himself and his family.”