Great Britain’s Davis Cup tie with Austria was a complete fiasco from start to finish.

There was so much wrong, including team morale and ticket prices, and the LTA executives who were too consumed by their own smugness after signing last week’s new sponsorship deal should be pretty ashamed.

Where do we start?

How about the estimated 10,000 empty seats across the weekend - complete blocks of vacant green seats on all three days - what a total joke.

How rare is the chance to see top-flight international tennis in the UK?

This was Britain’s only home Davis Cup tie of the year and, apart from Queens and Wimbledon, the only chance to see Andy Murray play on these shores.

On Sunday, there was the chance to go to the home of tennis and watch a guaranteed Murray match - for many a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - and yet a generous estimate of the crowd, rattling around inside the 11,000 stadium, was 7,000.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not bad (and certainly Friday’s 9,000 attendance was impressive) but when you’ve only got a handful of major tennis events in Britain over the whole year, each empty seat is a catastrophe.

As Andy Murray said on Sunday night (without the aid of a marketing diploma) why couldn’t tickets have been given to schools and tennis clubs and buses laid on to ship kids into Wimbledon?

This was attempted, but way too late. On the final day, embarrassed officials had to bring in giant Union flags to cover up scores of empty seats.

Perhaps the public simply didn’t know the match was happening and, going by the lack of promotion, many wouldn’t have known tickets were still available.

Communication has never been the LTA’s strong point and at the start of the week, rather than trumpet their sponsorship deal which could have waited, they should have set about shifting the tickets using every marketing ploy under the sun.

Why weren't team coaches sent around the TV and radio studios to plug the ticket hotline? Because most of them aren't even based in the UK - that's why.

Which leads us onto the British “bench” - the home of the coaches, physios and assorted folk who enjoy life from inside a GB tracksuit.

For the whole weekend this multifarious bunch appeared to lack any faith in the team’s chances - simply not believing anyone other than A.Murray could win for Britain.

How else can you explain their indifference?

Most of them needed to be prized from their seats to celebrate a point and it was rare to see anyone, other than the admirably consistent Louis Cayer, on his feet to encourage the players.

Andy Murray and Jamie Murray even disappeared during the critical final match, apparently to watch from the locker room, leaving only Ross Hutchins as a courtside team member for the last two sets of Alex Bogdanovic’s demise. How’s that for team spirit?

Back in the Henman/Rusedski days I remember being at raucous Davis Cup ties in Birmingham where the team bench would lead the cheerleading; chanting, clapping and rapping on the advertising boards.

Even at the 2006 tie against Serbia in Glasgow, the passion of James Auckland - even his support of lost causes - was infectious.

OK, we all knew Alex Bogdanovic was going to crumble - it was one of the year’s most predictable outcomes - but the backroom team shouldn’t just be giving up.

When he went a break down in the third set of the final match, the body language on the bench was appalling and the pessimism spread to the court.

All that was missing was the little white towel.

Of course captain John Lloyd’s controversial selections didn’t help the mood, starting with the pick of unreliable Bogdanovic and moving onto the resting of Andy Murray for the doubles.

Both decisions fuelled anxiety. They placed way too much faith in the ability of Bogdanovic, a talented player but someone who has constantly failed to deliver on the big stage.

Lloyd’s belief that the match would always come down to the deciding rubber smacked of defeatism and, even though his choices were well intentioned, with the aid of hindsight they were ill-judged.

As, ultimately, was the choice of surface and venue.

In the past two years, Britain has lost on grass to Israel and Austria. It is no longer a benefit for a British team to play on grass. Opponents simply aren't intimidated the way they used to be.

Taking the ties back around the country to indoor arenas, playing to capacity crowds and spreading the tennis gospel in the regions, would be far more productive (especially at this time of year when Murray is about to embark on the European Indoor season).

When asked to comment on all the issues raised here, there was a deafening silence from the LTA.

So Lloyd and his team are left to head to the shallow backwaters of the Euro-Africa zone for their next tie and a possible match with the likes of Belarus, Belgium or Ukraine.

Thank goodness Andy Murray has declared himself available. Murray was superb over the weekend and, going by some of his post-match comments, is clearly feeling the burden of carrying this team.

And that's without the stress of taking charge of the marketing department...