Four junior tennis players have refused a call-up to play for Marlborough in a row over sponsorship, which followed the father of two of the players being sacked as the province's coach.
Jeremy Crouch,(18), Caleb Mooney (18), Rebecca Boon (17) and Hannah Mooney (15) have all pulled out of the Blair Cup against neighbouring Nelson on Sunday, February 14.
The players say they have been denied up to $650 in annual sponsorship after the sacking of Marlborough coach Michael Mooney last year.
Marlborough Tennis Association junior convenor of selectors David Winstanley said: "I have never struck anything like this in 50 years of administering sport.
"The culture which has developed in the juniors with regard to the importance of playing tennis for Marlborough is unbelievably bad.
"This is the most important junior game of the season and I have had my team sabotaged."
Caleb Mooney said he had always been proud and happy and to play for Marlborough over the past six years but in common with the other youngsters had decided that withdrawal of sponsorship left them no alternative but to refuse.
"The bottom line is if the Marlborough Tennis Association refuse to support us then we are not willing to support them."
The split centres on the sacking, with players loyal to Michael Mooney saying they have been refused sponsorship funding unless they join rival coach Heiner Wirtz-Fielding.
Winstanley blamed former coach Mooney for having lost four of his team of eight players.
"I am having trouble getting a Blair Cup team because Michael is sabotaging it," he said. "The reason I am having trouble is that he has pulled his two kids out and is influencing others." But Mooney denied any sabotage and said last year he "rescued" the Blair Cup team from poor administration.
"I stepped in to help out and got a team on the paddock and I did it for nothing to help the association out," he said.
Mooney said that Jeremy and Caleb were ranked among the best two or three juniors in Marlborough as well as in the top five or six adult males.
"Obviously the Marlborough Tennis Association thinks they are among the best juniors in the province and yet they took away their subsidy five months ago. Why are some of the best young players in Marlborough not getting the subsidy that was designed for them?"
The association says in a posting on its website last year that it decided to sever ties with Mooney as a professional tennis coach.
"Michael has been continuously at conflict with the MTA and this was subsequently escalated by his complaint to New Zealand Tennis and NZ Immigration Department over the arrival of Heiner Wirtz-Fielding to Marlborough."