Final straw was telling via email that he was not showing up for a match a couple hours before the match. The reason was not an emergency and a forseeable circumstance. He left me scrambling trying to find someone that late forcing me to spend time at work calling numerous people. I finally got someone to play- but he was a guy that hadn't signed up for the team so I had to sign him up and pay his registration fee. He never apologized and treated the whole thing as no big deal.
He would be benched for the season on my team and he wouldn't play for my team again. I have more players on my team than I need, and have turned down half a dozen players in the past few weeks to protect the playing team of my players. The last thing I need is a guy who doesn't care about the other guys on the team.
Things happen that are unavoidable and that's understandable. We all find ourselves in a jam every now and then. It's called life. But when someone tells you they will be there, then you get an email telling you he's not coming, he needs to understand this: you are better without him.
This past spring, I had a weak 3.5 player go 1-5 in doubles. If he loses he always blames his partner. He is simply a weak player, who doesn't bring much to the team other than baggage. I was just going to not sent him a team invite, but another player who rarely plays due to his work sent him the team number.
I call the guy and tell him I expect him to show for practices. Practice One: The guy shows for one practice, plays one set, then tries to leave. I tell him that 11 guys showed up planning to hit three sets of doubles per my team email, including my singles players who like to practice in doubles since they play a lot of singles. He stayed for three sets although not happy. Last week he no-shows a practice leaving 11 guys on three courts, all of them expecting to play three sets of doubles each. He called me at 4 pm telling me he would be there. At 640pm, now ten minutes late, I call him to learn he's not coming. He simply say "I'm not going to make it tonight." I got a player from another team to hit with us by 7 PM. I was angry and told my team what was happening. He offered no excuse. I didn't need to hear one. But I did tell him if he knew at 6pm he wasn't going to make it, he should have called me at 601 PM. I didn't even give this guy this my team number. He got it from one of the other guys on the team who is rarely in town due to work.
He got the number joined the team, then no-shows me last Monday, then asked me to put him in the lineup for this week. I sent an email to the entire team including him with the lineup. Do you think he was on my lineup?
He will not be in my lineups until he calls me, or see me in person and addresses his no-show. If he plays for me this season, it will be on a court that I don't care if I win or lose, with another guy that my players don't enjoy hitting with as their partners.
I don't condone nor reward bad behavior. I do hold people accountable for their poor actions, not for their poor play. He brings nothing to my team but extra work. He brought this on himself. He is one the bottom 2 guys on my team. We don't need boat anchors or drag.
Just my take on your guy and my plan to get rid of two players that bring nothing positive to our team.