KINGSTON, Jamaica – President of the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) Marva Bernard on Monday said that there is a need for the game to grow and develop outside of Kingston and St Andrew.

She was addressing reporters and editors at the Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue head office in Kingston.

As senior players and some members of staff for the Jamaica Sunshine Girls gear up to retire at the end of the World Cup in August, Bernard said plans are afoot to find requisite talent to fill the gap.

“Our history proves that we have talent. Not everyone knows that we have an under-14 programme, [which] came in 2007 when we asked Scotiabank to help us to start a grass-root programme which moves into the under-16, then under-21, and then the Sunshine Girls.

“There is a progression that existed long before now,” Bernard explained.

She said that after World Cup, the cycle begins again.

“Because we are focusing on broadening our roots outside of Kingston and St Andrew, this is where greater depth for talent identification will come because we have finally established a Kingston and St Andrew Netball Association, so Netball Jamaica will not be concentrating its efforts on doing things for clubs in Kingston and St Andrew, she said.

Moving forward, Bernard explained that the game has to grow outside of the Corporate Area, but admitted that it will take time.

“It requires concerted effort by the parent body. For six months of the year we are down in the business of leagues and paying cheques and administering leagues business,” she continued. “We need to broaden the game outside the Corporate Area and that is one of the focus of Netball Jamaica.”

Moya Hinds