Table tennis in Jamaica has potential for great popularity, as used to be the case in the old days.

The game, however, will not recapture its past glory if its leadership continues, in a Jamaican colloquialism, to be 'dibby-dibby', which is to say, lacking in character, worth and purposefulness.

The shame is that until recently we had great hope for the future of the sport. There was the emergence of prodigious talent like the adolescent Yvonne Foster, the new national women's champion, as well as the possibility of increased support from the world's table tennis giant, China.

But unfortunately, the Jamaica Table Tennis Association has been engulfed in hubris and indecorous behaviour. It is perhaps not too far-fetched, in the current atmosphere, to envision the top brass of the association, in the stereotypical picture of loose behaviour, engaged in the proverbial stand-pipe quarrel, lifting dresses above their heads.

In the middle of this new, banal JTTA is its recently elected president, Mr Joseph Dibbs, who, fewer than four months at the helm, has been less than inspiring. For many, Mr Dibbs is the problem.

A former national champion, Mr Dibbs won the presidency in June, defeating Collette Palmer by a vote of 18-8.

Despite his presidency, Mr Dibbs was a participant in the recent national championships, which, whatever the precedent, could not have been right. Even Mr Dibbs should have seen the potential conflict of interest of playing in a tournament run by an association over which he presides.

What would be the case if Mr Dibbs, the president of the JTTA, had to rule on an issue involving Mr Dibbs, the player in the tournament?

As it turned out, the situation has been even more bizarre.

We do not have the full details, and therefore the absolute truth of the events, but Mr Dibbs has been accused by his critics of omitting two senior players from the national table tennis team to secure his own place. We, of course, find this hard to believe, for no one would be so crass.

During the recent national tournament, Mr Dibbs was accused of hitting a child with a ball and ejected from the competition for refusing to apologise. According to Mr Dibbs, no apology was warranted for the offence of which he was accused. He does not deny hitting the child, but said it was just to gain his attention, not to hurt. He believes that the whole issue was blown far out of proportion.

That may have been the case. But Mr Dibbs might have appealed his ejection, which we expect to be the right of any player who believes that he is unfairly treated.

What Mr Dibbs, the president of the JTTA, did, it has been claimed with seeming credibility, was to remove the net from the playing surface and refused to return it until he was reinstated.

We agree with Mr Dibbs that a disciplinary hearing of the JTTA should not have been held in his absence. Justice demanded that he be allowed to defend himself.

But that notwithstanding, given the incidents, Mr Dibbs should do the honourable thing and resign. He can't, in the circumstance, expect to lead the revival of the JTTA.

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