What it all means

Behind the bullet points and corporate speak, what does 'Pushing the Boundaries' really mean?

The simple answer is:

New Zealand Cricket intends to pursue the goal of excellence, not only on the New Zealand stage, but the world front by:

Producing clear, decisive and innovative leadership

Recognising that people are critical to success

Continued growth of the game

A relentless drive to win and to dominate international cricket

Having a strong and sustainable commercial base.

Some key factors in achieving this will be the adoption of an organisational risk identification, assessment and management programme. This will allow NZC to monitor the financial performance of the Major Associations and also its various processes.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) will be established with each Major Association and funding will be provided with the SLAs to ensure NZC strategies can be delivered.

As part of the policy's plan, special emphasis will be placed on the retention of young women in the game, and on increasing the participation of Maori and Pacific peoples. It is also intended that the national development policies and programmes must have the best possible support infrastructure providing quality coaches, umpires, scorers, statisticians and playing facilities to stimulate the continual development of the game. The place of volunteers will be recognised and encouraged.

Central to these aims will be specific development pathways in the playing and coaching of the game at all levels. Current and former players will be encouraged to become coaches and past coaches will be targeted to come back to the game. Umpires and scorers and statisticians will also be targeted to increase their respective contributions.

At the lower levels, administrators will be encouraged to indulge in succession planning with training also provided for future administrators. Playing facilities will continue to be addressed with more in-depth research programmes and the implementation of a warrant of fitness for standards at international and domestic levels for pitches and outfields, practice and player facilities.

A strategy will also be developed to protect cricket's right to have access to dual-purpose grounds while NZC will also develop and/or support new technology to enhance playing facilities.

The administration has also signalled that at the elite level it is not prepared to be satisfied with a No 3 Test ranking or No 5 in the one-day structure. Beefed up coaching strategies are to be sought at elite and domestic levels while coaching development will see reseach aimed at development world leading coaching and performance enhancing practices, which will be central to the overall coaching network in the country.

Those players chosen at the front end of the strategy should want for nothing as they seek to push their own performance boundaries. Those players will also have a greater role to play in the presentation of the game to the public.

It is a radical upgrade to the policy already enacted by the Hood Report, but it is vital to New Zealand Cricket's continued expansion as one of the leading sports performers on the national and international scene. And it starts now.