Hit a century or bowl for a duck...

Sports are important in Jamaican life.
Every sports event is high visited. It is a way to forget the daily problems for a while and to meet other people.

Cricket is by far the most important sport on the island and was introduced by the British colonists. Soccer is number to. But Jamaicans also are successfully active in athletics, horse racing and polo.

Cricket
The game of Cricket was imported from the English in the late eighteenth century and was initially played by European military officers who sought to exclude Africans and persons of mixed races from playing.

Cricket was not only used as a racial barrier during these times, but as a social one as well. It separated the elites from the less privileged. However, over time, young slave boys were introduced to the game as bowlers to the sons of the slave-owners or the army officers, who played batsmen. In their spare time, the slaves practised their batting and eventually learned the rules of the game.
The intention of the British was to use cricket as a civilizing agent for the locals as they believed that if the locals adopted the game, it would impose many of the British values on them.

At first, Jamaica was not recognized as a cricket-playing territory despite the many cricket clubs that had been formed here. The St. Jago, Vere and Clarendon Cricket clubs were the first to be established in Jamaica.
These clubs were established in 1857 and later in 1863, the Kingston Cricket club was formed followed by Kensington in 1878. These were not the only clubs that existed here, however, they were most prominent.

The first inter-colonial tournament
During the late nineteenth century, Barbados, Trinidad and British Guiana were the Cricket Giants of the region. They played in the first inter-colonial tournament in 1891. In 1895, an English side toured the West Indies, playing at the home of the “giants” and Jamaica. All the territories were triumphant except for British Guiana.

This event did influence the tour of England by the West Indian team in 1900. The West Indian team was outclassed on this tour, losing 8 matches and drawing 4. Despite their loss, however, they gained much experience which enabled them to improve their game.


In the early part of the 20th century, the West Indian players spent their time developing and improving their skills.
The reputations of some of the players began spreading in the international cricket circuit and on their return trip to England in 1923, the West Indies team impressed the international cricket authorities so much with their skills that they were eventually awarded official Test Match status in 1928.

Cricket Stars
West Indies cricket has produced many “stars” over the years who have helped to propel the region to a status of dominance reigning supreme from the 1960s through to the 1980s.

Players such as Clive Hubert Lloyd of Guyana, Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards of Antigua, Brian Lara of Trinidad, George Alphonso Headley, Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh of Jamaica, and Sirs Gary Sobers, Frank M.M. Worrell, Everton D. Weekes and Clyde Walcott of Barbados, are only a few of the “greats” who have played integral roles in the development of West Indies Cricket over the years.

In recent times, the West Indies Cricket team has encountered many disappointments and has lost its supremacy in the game. However, cricket still remains one of the most popular sports and a source of inspiration for the Caribbean people.


Soccer
Thanks to the 1998 success of the ReggaeBoyz, Jamaica's national soccer team, soccer now is Jamaica's second sport.
Some of the records available indicates that football (soccer) was introduced in Jamaica towards the end of the 19th century and 1893 is listed as the year Jamaica formed it's first football club.

Jamaica's first international appearance was against their Caribbean neighbors Haiti in 1925.
In 1965 under the leadership of Brazilian coach Jorge Penna, Jamaica made its first attempt at World Cup qualifying. This was for the 1966 World Cup finals in England. The preliminary group included Cuba, the Netherlands Antilles, and Jamaica.

In 1968 coach George Hamilton took leadership as Jamaica made an attempt to qualify for the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico. Jamaica had only a couple remaining players from the previous World Cup team and had to rebuild because most of the players had retired or migrated to North America and England.
Unfortunately Jamaica lost all of their qualifying games in that year. In the years followed the national team did not create any impressive results .

World Cup 1998
Under Brazilian Professor Rene Simones and National coach Carl Brown finally the team qualified for the finals of the 1998 World Cup in France. They lost 2 games and won one game and did not reach the quarter finals, but no one had a problem with that: Jamaica was there and how!

Jamaica made history by becoming the first English speaking country from the Caribbean to ever qualify for the world cup finals.

In the National Premier League twelve teams compete for the title of National Champion every year.


Athletics
Jamaica is one of the leaders in international athletics scene. Their achievements in track and field have brought fame and glory to Jamaica.

From Arthur Wint, Jamaca's first Olympic gold medal winner in 1948, and the legendary quartet of Herb McKenley, Arthur Wint, George Rhoden and Les Laing, with a record-setting relay in Helsinki, to more recent toppers like Donald Quarrie, Merlene Ottey and Veronica Campbell, Jamaica always is successfully present on the major Athletics games in the world.

Polo
The sport of Polo was introduced to the island in 1882. Westerners, first saw a sport that originated in Persia 2,500 years ago, in the 19th century, when British soldiers, serving in Manipur, observed the national game.
The Manipurs had copied and probably adapted the game from Tibet using the Tibetan name “pulu”. The British were establishing tea plantations in Manipur’s Cacher Valley, and five years later in 1859 the first European polo club was formed there. Polo came to Jamaica at about the same time when the sport was introduced to America.

There are three main Polo clubs, St Ann Polo Club, which is one of the oldest playing clubs in the Western Hemisphere, Chukka Cove and Kingston Polo Club. Matches can be seen during Polo season from April through August on Thursday and Saturday afternoons at any one of these polo clubs.