This Isn't Really About the Money, But..

The Sydney Morning Herald broke a big story for Aussies a few days ago by reporting claims that Nicole Pratt wanted a little extra cash for playing Fed Cup and quit the team at the eleventh hour when she didn’t get it. These kinds of stories rarely make it to print, because they tend to make everyone look bad in that “Oh . . . I guess it really is all about money” kind of way. That’s an especially disappointing conclusion when it concerns one of the few areas where money isn’t supposed to matter—representing your nation, like you do in Fed Cup.

Pratt was quick to rebut the charges of John Alexander, the former player who’s now head of the Aussie Fed Cup effort, claiming that her abrupt decision to sit out the tie had nothing to do with extra appearance money. I have to confess that her defense, built on vague generalizations, sounds awfully weak. Money quote (no pun intended):

How did this all get out? That's an easy one. Alexander was miffed, and he's enough of a loose cannon (think Pat Cash, not Tony Roche) to speak his mind and let the chips fall where they may.

I’m always of two minds about these kinds of controversies—a part of me is happy the conflict has been exposed, even if it’s ugly; another part argues that playing this out in the pages of the morning newspaper is a little like having a domestic dispute in public. That is, it’s to be avoided at all costs, no matter who’s right or wrong.

Ultimately, this all suggests that the Aussie Fed Cup effort is a mess.