One of the privileges of hosting Wimbledon every year is the fact British players are often wild cards into the tournament, writes John Payne.

It has led to the odd great shock win over the years, but more often than not a succession of defeats leading to national papers lamenting the stars of a sport they pay lip service to most of the year.

It is of course one of the ironies that while a wild card has never led to a British victory it might have prevented one.

That was in 2001 when the great Croat Goran Ivanisevic thanked the Lawn Tennis Association for its nomination with a semi-final win over its golden boy Tim Henman before lifting the famous gold cup.

It’s hard to see any of the Brits in the first swathe of wild cards – Liam Broady, Kyle Edmund, James Ward, Naomi Broady or Johanna Konta even making it to the end of next week.

Ward and Broady barely made an impression at the $50,000 Surbiton Trophy Challenger last week, when winner Matthew Ebden was 81 places below Ward in the world rankings prior to the start of the tournament.

The guaranteed prize money and big tournament experience gives them a big advantage over players of a similar stature from other countries.

Of course, home crowds want to see home players, but it begs the question as to why we seem to end up with perennial wild cards rather than many going on to qualify by right.

There is no doubt British tennis has enjoyed far greater success over the past 20 years or so – some stirring Davis Cup performances have shown that.

But that has largely come on the back of two-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray’s rise to the top of the sport.

Do wild cards prevent some of ours from showing the hunger of other players from other countries?

It's a conundrum the LTA has never really found the answer to. Perhaps they will this summer.