Instant critics like to ignore our success stories

All the rain delays and waiting around at this year's Wimbledon has given me time to read some of the instant tennis experts talking and writing about British tennis in some sections of the media. A lot of it has been painful to hear and read.

Everybody is having a go at British tennis and its "failures" and voicing their opinions of what the Lawn Tennis Association needs to do to move forward and create more world-class players. It is the same every year, mainly because tennis is purely a two-week sport in this country and success is based on Wimbledon performances and nothing else. Very few people ever put British players in context.

It happened with Tim Henman, who lost Wimbledon semi-finals to people like Lleyton Hewitt and Pete Sampras and got called a failure, and it will probably happen with my brother Andy. It's ridiculous and unfair. The debate that seems to be going around certain areas is whether the LTA should be paying Brad Gilbert's fee to coach Andy. Coaches like Brad charge what seems like a lot of money but, if you are the LTA and he's taking your top singles player to No8 in the world and probably much higher in years to come, then isn't he worth every penny?

Andy is the potential Wimbledon champion that the country so badly craves and Brad could help him achieve that. It seems a small price to pay. Everybody knows the LTA has a lot of money but I don't think it should be criticised for spending it, especially when it is trying to change things and put the system in place to find those future champions.

The LTA makes a huge amount of money from the profits of Wimbledon each year and only a tiny percentage of that goes on Brad's salary. Some people have even suggested that Andy pay the money back, which I just don't agree with. Andy's giving plenty back to this country by being eight in the world, just like I give back by achieving in doubles.

The LTA is making a lot of changes but you can see from the help that the doubles coach Louis Cayer and Brad have given me and Andy so far that it's already having a positive effect and I think you will see those changes making an even bigger difference in a few years.

I do have one beef with the LTA, though - I don't feel it was fair for some of the big dogs of the organisation to come out and slate some of the lower-ranked players and publicly question their work ethic. Yes, I agree that maybe some players don't work as hard as they should; I wouldn't say I am the hardest worker ever and I don't enjoy practising particularly but I know when I go on the court I am working on the things I need to make me a top player.

I don't think anyone from the LTA should voice his opinions about the work ethic of the players through the media, though. I don't see Sir Alex Ferguson publicly singling out Manchester United players for bad performances in games. That kind of thing should be done behind the scenes, not in public. There is just way too much negativity in British tennis all round.

People in this country seem to want players to mess up. They love the losers, all those players who became national heroes for losing five-setters in the first round of Wimbledon and built good television careers on the back of it. I'd rather praise the guy who won and went on to the next round.

I agree with what Tim said last week - everything is now set up for all British tennis players and, if they fail to reach their potential, then it is their own fault. They do need to start accepting the share of the responsibility for their own careers. The head of men's tennis, Paul Hutchins, is right when he says we have a blame culture and some players are very quick to moan about the LTA.

We have an amazing facility at Roehampton which has everything a tennis player requires to recognise his talents, including an amazing gym and sports science facilities. The LTA's chief executive, Roger Draper, has recruited some of the best coaches in the game, including Peter Lundgren, Paul Annacone, Brad and Louis, who has helped me enormously and is a big reason why Eric [Butorac] and I are ranked 14 in the world as a team.

Andy and I are success stories so it's hard when people get on our backs. We play Davis Cup, hopefully we'll represent this country at the Olympics and we do our best, which is all anybody can ask. To those who criticise us I have just one questionto ask: would you rather have us there or not?