When Jamaica made its historical debut at the 1998 World Cup in France, seven players in the 22-man squad were based overseas.

In fact, some of them had never even set foot in the country before the qualification process began.

Full of hope, the nation now turns its eye to South Africa 2010, and the issue of using overseas-based players versus local ones will no doubt once again slip back into the limelight.

The question remains: Is there anything wrong with using players who had no previous link to the nation other than by birth or parentage, to the extent that home-grown talent will not be exposed (at the international level)?

Prior to the 1998 campaign the issue was never a significant one, despite the fact that Jamaica have been attempting to qualify for the world's premier sporting event since 1965.

Those squads were predominantly local-based, but the fact remains that before the successful 1998 campaign, which was the first to employ significant use of overseas talent, Jamaica remained in relative obscurity from the standpoint of international football.

The basketball fraternity faced a similar issue the other day when, for the first time in their history, they won the Caribbean Amateur Basketball Association Championships with both the men's and women's teams.

Murmurs

The murmurs coming from some of the crowd, and even some members of the administration then, was the same for football in 1998, as only five players from a combined total of both squads plied their trade locally.

But, let's face the truth, while the idea of a purely or mostly local squad taking us to the highest levels of sport is a noble one, it never has, and will perhaps never be, a realistic one.

Apart from concrete examples of consistent failure, theoretically, any nation that competes internationally should always wish to put its best foot forward, and this will always include players taking part in the game at a higher level.

While there is certainly no denying that our home-grown players have the talent, they not only suffer from a lack of quality coaching but also from a lack of quality competition.

This fact alone makes it difficult, if not impossible, to compete with opponents who not only have first-class development facilities available, but also are consistently exposed to both.

The issue, which speaks to the local players taking the team to the big dance and then locked out of it, is not uniquely a Jamaican scenario and will exist forever in sports, which has winning as its primary objective.

Big business

Once better and more experienced players are available we have to use them. Any notion of loyalty to the ones that got you to this point does not count; sports is, after all, a big business.

Nonetheless, the existence of a strong local contingent will doubtlessly be crucial in this qualification campaign, and the experience of new technical director, Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, is already beginning to come to the fore as he has been scouting around for the best local talent available.

Bora himself expertly pointed out when asked if he had got a chance to look at any of the overseas players:

"I don't really need to they already play for big clubs and we know that they are good, I will focus here," he said.

The home-grown talent, just as they were in 1998, will after all need to be the core of any successful Reggae Boyz team.

However, there can be nothing wrong with including a few overseas gems. After all, the best way to expose local talent is on the world's biggest stage, and to get there you will need your best players.