poor Mr Becca, I don't think he understall football

[Assasin]

JFF, Reggae Boyz running scared

Published: Sunday | November 18, 2012


Burrell



Whitmore



Montesso




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Tony Becca ON THE BOUNDARY

Jamaica's footballers are about to begin their final hunt for a place in the World Cup finals of 2014, and for them, it's one of three places from six teams to get to the championship. That is a glorious opportunity Jamaica have a good chance of getting there, at least statistically. That is a glorious opportunity.

The Jamaicans, however, are nervous. After narrowly qualifying for this round, edging out Guatemala on goal difference in the previous round, Jamaica now line up with Mexico, the United States of America, Costa Rica, Panama, and Honduras to battle for the three places.

And if that is not enough, there is another play-off for the fourth-place team in this group in this round to get to Brazil. In other words, it can be even as good as four out of six.

Four from six, or four from seven, is a good bet in any language, but the Jamaicans are not only nervous, they are scared. They are scared that after depending on the foreign contingent so much they may let them down, they are scared after failing to impress and just inching in so far they may fall short this time, and they are scared they may again fail to produce and fall short of the target this time.

The result is that the president of the football federation, Horace Burrell, the head coach of the team, Theodore Whitmore, and the assistant coach, Alfredo Montesso, recently flew to England with the hope of talking to some players, to some Jamaican-born players, to some English-born players, and getting them to come "home" and play for Jamaica.

One man, Marlon King, said no, some others are not interested, at least not at this stage of their careers, and I do not know if they got anybody else.

FOOLISH MOVE
What I do know, however, is that it is foolish to continually ask these players to play for Jamaica, to ask some of them to abandon their childhood dreams of playing for England.

I do not agree with it for many reasons, top of which is the fact that many of them, even though they are Jamaicans by law, were not born in Jamaica, are not interested in Jamaica, do not speak like Jamaicans, and do not eat like Jamaicans.

They do not eat curried goat, jerked pork, and ackee and salt fish, neither do they drink mannish water.

Many of them, if you listen to them, are not Jamaicans.

Some of them do not even know where Jamaica is located, some of them do not even know the colours of the flag or even the sound of the national anthem, and some of them do not know many other things, including the rate of exchange of Jamaica's money, or the name of the prime minister of Jamaica.

As a matter of fact, they also did not learn their football in Jamaica.

WHERE'S THE MONEY?
On top of all that, where does Jamaica get the money to pay for all these cross-Atlantic flights and the hotel bills for all these players to move up and down, to play matches, including practice matches?

Should a Jamaican who lives abroad represent Jamaica? Of course he should, in certain circumstances.

He should if he is a Jamaican more than anything else, if he qualifies to play for Jamaica, if he genuinely wants to play for Jamaica, if he makes his intentions clear, very clear, if he agrees to certain responsibilities, if the two parties can come to an agreement, if financial terms can be agreed, and if he is away at school, if his parents are away on government business, or if he is away playing professional football.

These things should be remembered also: he may well be of another nationality, he may well be travelling on another passport, he may well swear allegiance to another country, he may well be paying taxes elsewhere, and he may well, as is bound to be the case, support another state, do not support Jamaica, and live happily and comfortably elsewhere.
Jamaicans should not have to drop everything and fly distance to meet with him for the first time, to encourage him to come "home" and play for Jamaica, and to promise him what Jamaica does do not have to come and play for Jamaica.

WHY DO IT?
On top of that, what does it do for Jamaica to get a boy like that, a boy who knows nothing about Jamaica, to play for Jamaica, and to win for Jamaica?

Does it make the football federation feel good, does it make Burrell feel good, does it make Whitmore feel good, and does it make Montesso feel good that they found a boy, out of Jamaica, out of the Jamaica scheme of things, out of the Jamaica programme, who can make Jamaica win?

May be it does make Jamaica feel good that year after year, and season after season, all they have to do is sit back and wait, wait until the next year, until the following season, or whenever the World Cup or some big tournament comes around, to look America's way, to look England's way, and to look Europe's way to find a "Jamaican" good enough to play for Jamaica.

It certainly will cost less in money, time, and expertise to bring a player up to scratch, to provide the necessary conditions for their development.

I remember, in 1984 or in 1988, I was in England covering the West Indies cricket team, the West Indians were playing the Leicestershire team at Grace Road, and a Jamaican, the president of the Jamaica/Leicester society, came to the ground and invited the Jamaican members of the West Indies team to his home for a meal.

He also invited me.

On the evening of the dinner, he kept talking to me, he talked to me all night long, and he talked about one thing: he tried to impress on me the need to come back home and to talk to everyone I meet about bringing home the youngsters born in England to represent Jamaica in sports.

STRANGERS
I told him I did not believe in it, so I could not do it. I told him that I believed in developing the skills of the youngsters at home before I did anything else, and I asked him, what would be the purpose of doing that, of bringing them "home", of leaving out the boys who play at home every day and then having a situation where nobody knew the boys who played?
The two teams would be strangers to the crowd, and the crowd would be strangers to both teams.

Suddenly, a young man passed by, maybe 17 or 18 years old, and the man called him and introduced him to me before turning to speak to someone else.

"What is daddy saying to you? He wants me to come and play cricket for Jamaica, right?"

Before I could even answer him, he said, loud and clear, for all to hear, and in an accent I could hardly understand: "Don't you listen to him, Mr Becca. I don't even know where about is Jamaica."

[Stonigut]

This is definitely an isolationist, inflexible stance, it has no place in the world we live in today.

[Mosiah]

Becca makes some good points!

FOOLISH MOVE
What I do know, however, is that it is foolish to continually ask these players to play for Jamaica, to ask some of them to abandon their childhood dreams of playing for England.

It is foolish to continually ask a player to play for Jamaica. It is not foolish to continually ask players, generally, to play for Jamaica. I hope you see the difference.

Becca assumes their childhood dreams were to play for England.

I do not agree with it for many reasons, top of which is the fact that many of them, even though they are Jamaicans by law, were not born in Jamaica, are not interested in Jamaica, do not speak like Jamaicans, and do not eat like Jamaicans.
They do not eat curried goat, jerked pork, and ackee and salt fish, neither do they drink mannish water.
Many of them, if you listen to them, are not Jamaicans.
Some of them do not even know where Jamaica is located, some of them do not even know the colours of the flag or even the sound of the national anthem, and some of them do not know many other things, including the rate of exchange of Jamaica's money, or the name of the prime minister of Jamaica.
As a matter of fact, they also did not learn their football in Jamaica.

Some of these reasons for not playing for Jamaica are plain silly, Becca! They don't sound Jamaican? They don't drink mannish water?!? Who drinks that, anyway!?!?

But one reason makes every sense. If they are not interested in Jamaica, then why play for the country?

Should a Jamaican who lives abroad represent Jamaica? Of course he should, in certain circumstances.
He should if he is a Jamaican more than anything else, if he qualifies to play for Jamaica, if he genuinely wants to play for Jamaica, if he makes his intentions clear, very clear, if he agrees to certain responsibilities, if the two parties can come to an agreement, if financial terms can be agreed, and if he is away at school, if his parents are away on government business, or if he is away playing professional football.

Genuinely wanting to play for Jamaica does not necessarily mean that the player has no other country in mind. But he must make his intentions clear!

Jamaicans should not have to drop everything and fly distance to meet with him for the first time, to encourage him to come "home" and play for Jamaica, and to promise him what Jamaica does do not have to come and play for Jamaica.

Well, we do know what promises were made. But was it really worth having the Captain and two coaches trek across Europe, or at least England, to get players to commit to us? How much did all this cost? Could this be done by 21st century methods - emails, telephone calls and Skype?

On top of that, what does it do for Jamaica to get a boy like that, a boy who knows nothing about Jamaica, to play for Jamaica, and to win for Jamaica?
Does it make the football federation feel good, does it make Burrell feel good, does it make Whitmore feel good, and does it make Montesso feel good that they found a boy, out of Jamaica, out of the Jamaica scheme of things, out of the Jamaica programme, who can make Jamaica win?
May be it does make Jamaica feel good that year after year, and season after season, all they have to do is sit back and wait, wait until the next year, until the following season, or whenever the World Cup or some big tournament comes around, to look America's way, to look England's way, and to look Europe's way to find a "Jamaican" good enough to play for Jamaica.
It certainly will cost less in money, time, and expertise to bring a player up to scratch, to provide the necessary conditions for their development.

When are we going to take local development serious? When are we going to grow some pride and stop groveling for players every 4 years?!?! Players should be asked as their quality comes to the fore, not just before the Hex begins. They should be available for international friendlies as they try to build camaraderie and teamwork on and off the field. And there should be no groveling for their services at any time!

Anything else, and we would have failed our local footballers and the dreams of every little boy (or girl) in Jamaica who dreams of representing the country one day. Indeed, we would have sold out!

[Mosiah]

Do not throw out the entire article just because you may disagree with the essence of it. Becca makes some good points!

[PeeJay]

A Poorly Written Article that is only an Opinion Piece

This Writer did not offer any incite albeit his own experience. This article shouldn't have pass the editors desk.

[Assasin]

He made some good points which have to be considered but the headline of the article that Reggae boys in panic and to try and defend that is totally wrong.

Every team in the round trying to be better.

It is in the coaches best interest to go to England and the US and other places where our players play every so often to look at targer rather than inviting so many players one time and not call them back or putting players in the team based on the form they had 2 years ago.


No doubt the player should be committed to the cause.

[TheDread]

You guys are being too kind to that moron. Yes, he is a moron with a typical crabs in the barrel mentality. Even a blind squirrel gets lucky once in a while.

[Karl]

When are we going to take local development serious?

When those in charge reach an understanding of "the game within the game".

When are we going to grow some pride and stop groveling for players every 4 years?!?! Players should be asked as their quality comes to the fore, not just before the Hex begins. They should be available for international friendlies as they try to build camaraderie and teamwork on and off the field. And there should be no groveling for their services at any time!

Agreed!
The only way to go for true development of our football industry.

In the final analysis it is all about building Jamaica - and specific to our football the part building of a football industry shall play in that growth of our beloved country.

[Stonigut]

Mo, the bottom line is that he is pushing an insular, local village vision, that cannot be the vision for Jamaica in anything going forward. This world is about maximizing your links and bring greatest pressure across all links. In football we must reap the emigrant crop that is left to like fallow, case in point Nathan Dyer, to not do so means not being able to jump start the program again as we missed doing te necessary things to capitalise on 1998.

[Mosiah]

You guys are being too kind to that moron. Yes, he is a moron with a typical crabs in the barrel mentality. Even a blind squirrel gets lucky once in a while.

Ok. Who is the moron here - Burrell, Becca or me?

[Mosiah]

On which 4 year cycle do we realise we lost the last opportunity, need to jump start the program once again, and declare this is the last time!?

Or do we do repeat this until the Public Defender turns in the Tivoli Report?

[Stonigut]

We have not totally lost it but what we have done is insufficient to drive this team to draw on local guys, local talent outside of our local bred foreign league players, that is where we have a serious weakness that has not improved. Thus in order to get depth we have to go outside. Current local bred foreign squad is a good skeleton and that is where we have had improvement since 1998. Man like Morrison, Phillips, Austin, fuller, Taylor, Watson, gardener, shelton, Marshall, cummings, richards, andy williams and many others who have played, and survived over a long period , over the last ten years show that we have talent that can work hard and sacrifice and actually make it in a pro league.

We cannot find enough local league players to fill critical holes due to lack of understanding of level of professionalism necessary to play high standard ball game after game after game, without that the skeleton is insufficient to overcome that deficiency to get us too the hex and beyond.

First failure was not establishing the football academy with the money we got from 1998, then the lack of continuity in leadership was another setback both basically led to lack of infrastructure to develop necessary level of professionalism in the best yard players without foreign experience.

[OJ]

saw this article this morning and was offended by it. As a Jamaican living abroad with children some of whcih dont like manish water or cow foot but are very much Jamacian and would love to play for thier country or to be in their country at every opportunity I can say Tony Becca is a moron.. Stupid point of view. We are bigger than the 14 parishes.

[Tilla]

It is a stupidly written article. I am sure you and many other Jamaicans living outside the country will find it offensive. These same parochial points of view will get us nowhere.

I think it has been years now since Tony Becca can be considered a decent sports journalist. I think he is trying to get back into mainstream with his myopic point of views on who or what is a Jamaican. It is a pathetic attempt if you ask me. I am surprised trash like this was able to pass the editor's desk and get published. It must be really slow on the sports news front. . .

[OJ]

and i think to your point where the editors could send out some journalist..(what happen to sickko BTW) to ask a deon burnton what was it like to make that decision, or even a Jason Euel someone who may have played for England... I think there is so much around this.. i often wonder what does Sandy Richardson feels when she line up against us ... Can Raheem be the Sandy play for Engalnad but charitable towards his country.. There so much other angles other than this very shallow view very dissapointed with him.. but he is a cricket guy anyway..