Eastern Jamaica failing in sports
IWAS watching the daCosta Cup semi-finals on television when the thought came to me that there was a certain familiarity to the schools involved.
The final will see Clarendon College taking on Cornwall College, two powerhouses in daCosta Cup football. It dawned on me that yet again, there will be no teams from eastern Jamaica involved. For as long as anyone can remember, the daCosta Cup has gone to a team from central or western Jamaica, and the trend will continue this year.
If we delve further in football, we realise that no club from eastern Jamaica has done well in our Premier League for years either. Teams from Portland, St Thomas, St Mary and St Ann simply do not feature in football in any significant way, whether at the schoolboy or club level. We can safely predict that the winners of next year’s schoolboy football Premier League competitions will also not come from that side of the island.
We can extend it to other sports. When was the last time a team from any of those parishes won schoolboy cricket? When was the last time a team from that side did anything of note at Champs?
You do not have to be a rocket scientist to see that sports in eastern Jamaica is virtually non-existent. At the national level, they don’t make any kind of impact. Quite often, the very talented youngsters in football and cricket from eastern Jamaica have to start playing for teams in urban Jamaica for their talent to be developed to the next level.
What could be the reason for this?
QUALITY TEAMS
What are the social or economic forces at work that see central and western Jamaica putting up quality teams in our top sports while the eastern side of Jamaica struggles? One suggestion is that there tends to be greater rainfall in eastern Jamaica than the rest of the island, which makes it harder for children from those parishes to hone their skills outdoors. Teams from that side have done well in tabletennis – an indoor sports – which may well lend credence to the rainfall theory.
Whatever the theory as to why eastern Jamaica doesn’t do well in sports generally, the time has come for the powers to address the situation. The reality is that, certainly in football, cricket, and track and field, we are playing at a high quality in only twothirds of the island. If we are serious about sports as a nation, then this anomaly has got to be addressed.
I am not sure how we can go about this. Maybe we could start giving incentives to coaches to coach in that part of the island. Maybe we could go on a massive drive to set up dormitory facilities in high schools in that section of the country to make it easier for students to board there. Maybe the problem also has to be addressed at the political and government levels. Is there a link between the lack of economic development in those parishes and the moderate levels at which they perform in sports?
If greater business activities start in those parishes, thereby attracting more people with something to offer both in commerce and sports, would that make a difference on the field of play? I am not sure what the answers are. What I know is that I am not happy with the current state of affairs.
We have achieved so much as a sporting nation. We could be achieving so much more if we try to correct this imbalance. If we produce so many quality players and teams from twothirds of Jamaica, can you imagine what more we could be achieving if we were producing this same quality from all across the island?
The sports organisations, like the Jamaica Football Federation and the Jamaica Cricket Association, and even ISSA, should no longer see their role as merely to administer competitions and accept the status quo. They should take it upon themselves to help develop the sports where there are glaring weaknesses. There is a great need for a massive effort to improve sports in the eastern part of the island. Jamaica would ultimately benefit.