Mr Stephen Francis, the outstanding Jamaican athletics coach, is not often far from controversy and, by some accounts, is not the easiest of personalities with whom to get along.

These, perhaps, are part of the secret of his success - generating adrenaline to complement stupendous technical competence, backed by good organisation, serious planning and hard work. If that is so, Mr Francis should hold hard to his formula.

If such analyses are correct, it might in part explain this coach's suggestion this week - confirmed by his brother Paul, who is also one of his assistants - that Mr Francis might relocate his base from Jamaica, with implications for the MVP Track Club, to which he is attached.

The MVP Club, of which Stephen Francis, is among one of the founders, is a professional athletics training and management organisation, perhaps the only one of its kind in Jamaica. It has an organisational relationship with the University of Technology (UTech).

Well recognised globally

MVP's work generally and Mr Francis' personal achievements as a coach were well recognised before last month's Olympic Games. But the performance of athletes coached by Stephen Francis has its name cemented in global athletics.

No fewer than five MVP athletes left Beijing with Olympic medals, and this after a period of tension at the Games between Mr Francis and the Jamaican athletics association, including a threat by the coach at one point to pull his charges out of the team.

Post-Beijing, apparently, several international athletes want to be part of MVP and to benefit from Stephen Francis' skills. This is quite understandable.

But according to the Francises, having those foreign athletes coming to the island to be coached "may not sit well with Jamaica", hence the suggestion of relocation. And this, of course, makes little sense.

Indeed, it would not be the first time that foreign athletes would have come to Jamaica to be coached. Neither would it be the first time that they would be under Mr Francis' charge at UTech. Nor is there any evidence that this would be problematic in the future.

Value all round

Rather, it would seem that all public statements and policy suggestions by Jamaican officials appear to be in a direction opposite to Mr Francis' interpretation of official sentiments. Our understanding of the emerging idea is that the Government, as this newspaper previously suggested, would like to use the success of Beijing as a catalyst for Jamaica's transformation into a centre of athletics excellence, whose commercial potential would be exploited. UTech's athletics programme and the MVP formula would be part of this set-up. There would be value all round.

Maybe Mr Francis' hint is just a testing of the waters, his way of recharging the batteries, part of the regime for remaining on the cutting edge. But should Mr Francis be serious, we would hope that he reconsiders and with his MVP partners subject it to rigorous analyses and hard thought. Then, we would wish that he change his mind.

If, in the end, Mr Francis deems it in his best interest to relocate, Jamaica has to concede to the ways of the market. And we would wish him well.

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