Western Bureau:

AS THE need to keep youngsters in western Jamaica in sports and away from nefarious activities continues to loom large, controversy is now brewing over the use of Jarrett Park, in Montego Bay, with football interests accusing the Cecil Fletcher-led Jarrett Park Management Committee (JPMC) of making it difficult for them to use the facility.

However, in his defence, Fletcher, who is also the president of the St James Cricket Association, described those complaining as ‘mischief makers and liars,’ and intimated that St James FA president Gregory Daley is probably the person to be blamed as he has not been attending JPMC meetings, in his capacity as an ex officio member of that group.

“Mr Daley has been ignoring all our invitations to attend JPMC meetings, so all our interaction has been with Wadadah and Falklands football clubs, who, at different times, request the use of the park,” said Fletcher.

“We are fully honouring the agreement that football and cricket should share the park.

“Those who are saying otherwise are making mischief, they are liars, and we have documentation to prove that they are not telling the truth,” said Fletcher.

“All the parish teams, both football and cricket, are allowed to use the park free of cost.”

Because both sports are now all-year-round activities, unlike in 1957 when the renowned Kerr-Jarrett family donated the park to the people of St James to be shared equally between football and cricket interests, Fletcher said he got the St James Municipal Corporation to agree to have the football body use the Montego Bay Stadium at a cost of only the expense for preparing the facility.

While not stating outright that his association had been blocked from using the facility, Daley said getting access to Jarrett Park had become quite burdensome and the many hurdles to do so had made him quite frustrated.

“The JPMC is lopsided in favour of cricket, and while I cannot outrightly say we are being denied access, it is being made so difficult for us to get the use of it, that we have pretty much resorted to using other venues, to include community fields that are not as ideal,” said Daley, whose frustration is the reason he has alienated himself from the JPMC.

Like Daley, Bryan Miller, the president of the Montego Bay Cricket Club, says he is uncomfortable with the way the JPMC is currently operating, which he also believes is skewed towards cricket, impacting his club negatively.

“We are upset that football is not getting equal access to the park because that is affecting the running of the club,” said Miller, who has not been invited to any JPMC meeting in the one year since he assumed the presidency of the MBCC. “Information is conveyed via a WhatsApp group, but we don’t know who is making these decisions that are conveyed via this platform.”

Montego Bay’s Mayor Leeroy Williams has taken a decision to intervene in the matter in the hope that the various concerns can be addressed, and a fix found to appease the aggrieved football interests.

“I will be calling a meeting with both groups (cricket and football) because I have been getting a lot of complaints and we need to have this matter resolved as soon as possible,” said Williams.

“I am not aware that any changes were made to the original sharing arrangements between the two groups, so we must iron out that concern.”

Former St James FA president Wesmore Thomas, who presided over a golden era when the parish dominated schoolboy and club football in the late 1980s and ‘90s, winning numerous titles, including the first ‘battle of the cities’ clash between St James and Kingston and St Andrew, is extremely saddened by the reports about Jarrett Park.

“In the past, both associations use to honour the terms for the use of the park, and we got along so well that, at times, we made allowance for each group to use the park outside of their designated window,” said Thomas, who now lives in the United States.

“Sports is one of the few things that can bring back order to St James and everything must be done to get the youth actively involved … This Jarrett Park matter must be fixed for the benefit of these young people.”