West Indies set to expand first-class season

Setting out a goal to be among the top teams by 2012, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will focus on player development, with the major aims being the re-establishment of the West Indies A team, expanding the domestic first-class season in the region, and providing contracts to all first-class players.

The WICB is looking to groom the A side as a feeder for teams representing West Indies at the highest level. "The board is interested in bringing back the structure of the A team," Donald Peters, the WICB chief executive, said in a release. "We aim to have a re-emergence of the A team and to provide tournaments and matches for that group so that these younger players would be available for selection and would be fully ready when called up for international duty.

"The overall plan is for the WICB to harness a group of 80 top players so that these players form the nucleus from which West Indies will be selected," he said. "They will be retained as professional players so that any one of them at any stage could be selected and could fit into the team comfortably." The players would also be given opportunities to improve their skills at the High Performance Centre and the territorial campuses from the academy of the WICB.

The other areas identified for improving the level of cricket are the expansion of the regional season for the 2008-09; the establishment of a professional league by 2010; and the support and involvement of all territories to aid the development of the game.

"One of the things the head coach identified as a problem was that our players in the Caribbean do not play the same amount of first-class cricket as players in other full-member countries," Peters said. "Most ICC full members play a minimum of ten first-class matches in a season. We have therefore decided to expand the first-class season to 14 weeks. Players will have a chance to play more cricket, and this will give them the opportunity to work harder at their game and seek to improve the quality of cricket.

"Cricket will be played throughout a six-month period. It is evident by our recent performances that our players need to learn to bat for longer periods and make the right decisions at all times when they are on the field," he said. "Obviously to reach that standard we have to play more cricket if we are serious about being truly competitive at the international level again. West Indies cricket, at this point in our development, needs all territorial boards and corporate sponsors to take an active part in the development of West Indies cricket. All the stakeholders need to be involved in West Indies cricket if the game is to move forward."

The WICB will also re-negotiate contracts with the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) in order to provide fees and facilities for all first-class players, and not just those representing West Indies. "We realise that the players are the heart of the enterprise and our first priority in the next 30 days is to develop a new Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) with West Indies Players Association (WIPA) that will address salaries, match fees, performance related incentives, international ranking, statistical averages of players, and fitness." The release said Peters had been in consultations with Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa and the ECB to review and understand their agreements with players, and use those basic parameters to develop a new MoU with the WIPA.