WICB approves 19 changes

The West Indies Cricket Board approved a menu of 19 changes for the development of regional cricket with a goal of establishing the team as the number one performing team in world cricket.
The decisions were taken at a meeting in Port-of-Spain held on Friday and Saturday. At a media conference on Saturday, following the meeting, president Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron announced that the board approved 19 of the 20 recommendations which formed part of a comprehensive report on the West Indies cricket system prepared and presented by director of cricket Richard Pybus. The Pybus report holds “West Indies First” as its guiding principle. The 33 page report follows a comprehensive three month, region-wide study which he conducted between November and January.

Additional Changes

Additional notable changes are:

1. The West Indies head coach to be added to the selection panel and will have full voting rights
2. The West Indies captain(s) to be added to the selection panel as non-voting members
3. Structured year round cricket programme for all West Indies and all First Class contracted players
4. Fifteen full time annually contracted players to each territorial board
5. Double round matches (home and away) for minimum of ten matches a season for regional First Class teams
6. Professional administrative and coaching staff for each First Class team
7. West Indies High Performance Programme to cater to the next in line West Indies players (effectively the West Indies A Team)
8. WICB to appoint coaching manager to implement and oversee coaching programme throughout the region
9. Implement Elite Coaches Pathway programme which will identify current and former players for accelerated coaching training
10. Establish West Indies cricket captains council to utilise the cricket knowledge and experience of some of the world’s greatest cricketers, tapping into the cricket wisdom of the former great West Indies captains to inform cricket policy and implementation.