CATHERINE HALL, St James — Head coach of Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz Theodore Whitmore has labelled some clubs and players as “dishonest” about their record of invitation for national duties.

The coach, a former Jamaica captain, was responding to a reporter’s question about the number of players he had invited from Portmore United and Harbour View at a post-match press conference at the Montego Bay Sports Complex after Jamaica had edged Guyana 1-0 in an international friendly on Friday night.

While only naming one club, Waterhouse FC, Whitmore said players and clubs were not truthful about when their players were invited to the national set up.

“When you call (the players) you have players from Waterhouse, when you call them… problems,” Whitmore told the press conference.

He lashed out at the sport’s local governing body as well. “I have problems with even the JFF because we cover up so many things, which is why you can even ask a question like that tonight,” he told the needling journalist.

While saying there were no need to call names, the militant Whitmore said the response to call-ups were excuses. “When you call players all you get are excuses, then you hear ‘coach nah call nobody from Waterhouse, coach nah call no body from this or that club’ and it is just players from Portmore and Harbour View’ who respond to the invites.”

The result, Whitmore said, was that he would invite only “players who are committed to the programme and who have something to offer to the programme”. “So if 20 players from Portmore or Harbour View are committed (to the programme) the coach will call them,” he said.

He pointed out that reserve goalkeeper Damion Hyatt was from Arnett Gardens yet no one was asking why this untried player had been given an invite to the national team.

Harbour View’s Jeremie Lynch, one of three Harbour View players in the squad, scored the winning goal for Jamaica in his debut in the senior team.