Strategic plan for West Indies cricket in the pipeline

A strategic plan charting the way forward for West Indies cricket over the next five years is expected to be produced by March. That assurance has been given by recently appointed president of the West Indies Cricket Board, Julian Hunte, following a meeting with chairman of the CARICOM prime ministerial sub committee on cricket, Keith Mitchell.

The strategic report is expected to complement the governance report, recently released by a committee headed by former Jamaican prime minister, PJ Patterson, calling for urgent improvement in areas such as the governance, financial and commercial areas of West Indies cricket.

"My intention is to ensure that in addition to the Patterson report, we produce a strategic plan for the development of West Indies cricket from 2008 to 2013 that will map out what we are going to do with West Indies Cricket," Hunte told journalists. "From schools cricket right through to Test cricket, the question of how we select venues for matches [and] what we do with coaches. What we do with coaches in schools, how we treat community cricket. I am committed to putting a plan on the table by March next year."

The governance report made a series of recommendations to the WICB. Among them was a change in name in an effort to remodel their image and to become relevant in the modern era of sporting management and administration.

The report also suggested that the WICB lobby regional governments include cricket on the schools curriculum and recommended that the regional body strengthen their financial and marketing arm.