THE Jamaica Netball Association (JNA) is reporting that US$700, which it had earmarked to pay three umpires for next week’s NCB Sunshine Series against Jamaica’s senior netball team, was stolen from its Independence Park office which was burglarised early Wednesday morning.

The cash-strapped association planned to use the funds to pay the per diem for international umpires Liz Boone and Claire McGab from Oceania as well as Bajan Marion Johnson-Hurley who will officiate in the two match Test series on September 1 and 3.

JNA official Dorothy Hobson told the Observer that the money had been withdrawn from the association’s account a couple of weeks ago and was placed in a cash pan at the JNA office inside the National Arena.

“We think its someone who knows the area,” Hobson explained. “How they got entry to the place suggests it was someone familiar with it.”

The loss is a hard blow to the local governing body which constantly struggles to find sponsorship for its national programmes.

“It’s depressing,” a distressed JNA president Marva Bernard told the Observer.

She said in addition to replacing the funds, the JNA would also have to repair a wall and a filing cabinet which was totally destroyed during the break-in.

“We feel very violated… we’re here trying and this is what they do,” Bernard said.

The news of the robbery came at the same time the association received a major boost through the donation of a team bus from local light and power company Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

The bus will be used to transport teams during series and across the island as they prepare for the 2011 World Netball Championships in Singapore and beyond.

Meanwhile, the England netball team will arrive in the island today for the Sunshine Series, which begins on Wednesday.

The squad includes three players who will be having their first series in Jamaica — Sara Bayman, Rosalie Allison, and Stacy Francis.

The majority of the squad has faced Jamaica in the 2007 Sunshine Series ahead of the World Netball Championships and in subsequent series.

They include Karen Atkinson, Rachel Dunn, Tamsin Greenway, Joanne Harten, Geva Mentor, Sonia Mkloma, Eboni Beckford-Chambers, Jade Clarke and Pamela Cookey.

Both teams, ranked third and fourth in the world, will be using the series as warm up for this October’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.