Boyz off to NZ

British-based defenders Damion 'Stew Peas' Stewart and Claude Davis have earned a recall to Jamaica's senior football team, for its international friendly match against New Zealand on Wednesday.

Both players, who played together in the heart of the Jamaican defence, are included in a 19-member squad (nine overseas-based, 10 local), most of whom left here yesterday on a three-day journey to Oceania.

Davis, who plays for League Two outfit Crawley Town, last played for Jamaica in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, just like Stewart, who was unceremoniously expelled from the squad for disciplinary reasons, at that tournament. Stewart presently plays for League One team Notts County, on loan from Bristol City.

Another British-based player included in the squad is midfielder Keammar 'Dada' Daley, who plays for League One club Preston North End.

Bristol City's Marvin Elliott, who last played for Jamaica in an away game to Honduras last year, was slated to join the squad but encountered a serious injury to his left Achilles tendon on February 21 and could be out of action for four months.

international friendly

The match forms part of the Reggae Boyz preparation for 2014 World Cup Qualifiers, which get underway on June 8 with a home game against Guatemala.

Thirteen members of the squad left the island yesterday morning, following Friday night's 3-0 win over Cuba in their second international friendly at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.

Jamaica's head coach, Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore, says the Kiwis are "rebuilding".

"We know that they're in a rebuilding phase ...," Whitmore said in a post-match interview following their 3-0 win over Cuba on Friday. "But we don't want to really focus on the New Zealand team, we want to concentrate on what we want to do and what we want to achieve from these games."

The Jamaican delegation travelled from Montego Bay through Miami to Los Angeles, before jetting down to Auckland.

The New Zealand national team is nicknamed 'All Whites' and played in the FIFA World Cup in 1982 and 2010. In 2010, New Zealand exited the competition after the first round despite turning out to be the only unbeaten team in the finals. They are part of the Oceanic Football Confederation (OFC) and won the OFC Nations Cup four times, the last being in 2008.

The game will be played at the Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 29 (approximately 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jamaica time).

SQUAD: Dwayne Miller, Jacomena Barrett, Jermaine Taylor, Claude Davis, Damion Stewart, Je-Vaughn Watson, Omar Cummings, Luton Shelton, Keammar Daley, Adrian Reid, Troy Smith, Xavian Virgo, Richard Edwards, O'Neil Thompson, Jorginho James, Tremaine Stewart, Keneil Moodie, Navion Boyd, Romeo Parkes.