Hope for West Indies women's cricket

Hope, albeit a glimmer, is in sight for West Indies women. A few weeks ago, Cricinfo revealed that the game was in dire straits with no international matches played, or planned, since West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) took over in 2005.

Now the board has confirmed to Cricinfo that it hopes both to sort out a structure - in consultation with Jeff Broomes a vice-president of the women's federation (WIWCF) - and to gain sponsorship support from Digicel.

Tony Deyal, the WICB secretary, told Cricinfo: "I believe that we are committed and will do what is necessary. As soon as we have the report and a plan, we will get together the presidents of the six territorial boards with the women's cricket association (WIWCF) and delineate the steps forward. The major focus is on getting something together that we can cost, find support for, and implement."

Whether being committed and doing what's necessary means that the forthcoming visit of India and Pakistan can be salvaged, though, remains to be seen.

"It is important that we have a sense of who is doing what (if anything)," Deyal continued, "and what we will have to do. We have spoken to our major sponsor, Digicel, about support and our plans for the Academy include training for our women cricketers."

Some may question, though, what the board has been doing for the last two years since it took over following the ICC's mandate. In that time it has done little - and even stopped its annual grant of $100,000 it used to give WIWCF to run the game.

Other small steps are being made. The board has at least developed and sent out a baseline survey regarding the game, from which it expected to build, and it is this which the board hopes the WIWCF can assist with.

A lack of follow-up by the territorial boards and the short-staffed WICB at the time meant that the survey was not completed by some of the boards and even if it were, there was nothing in place at the board, and nobody to take it further.

But now, says Deyal, there are more staff in place. "For the past two years the management of the WICB was at one point down to one person and we are now in a better position to deal with outstanding issues since we have a CEO and four managers responsible for sharing the workload.

"What we have decided is to review where we are with the integration in each of the countries and regionally, and to ensure that a member of management has the responsibility to carry out whatever programme is agreed to by the board."

The board need to act quickly, however, if they are to salvage the home international matches later this year.