President of the T&T Cricket Board Azim Bassarath has announced an injection of $1.5 million for clubs, and the appointment of zonal co-ordinators to improve the development of cricket throughout the nation.
Bassarath also made a stirring appeal to cricket clubs to play a greater role in the development of their respective communities.
He was speaking on Sunday at the 2015 prize-distribution function of the East Zone of the TTCB, staged at the Tunapuna Hindu School, situated at the Corner of Pasea Main Road and the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway.
"This is what your Board is doing for you. We recognise your valued input to our sport and today I am proud to announce that the TTCB is pumping $1.5 million into our seven zones plus Tobago in the next year," said Bassarath.
All prize monies for zonal clubs have also been increased, for the League, the Limited Overs and T20 competitions.
"We have also been assigned, thanks to input from the National Training Agency, seven zonal co-ordinators to assist in the proper administration and implementation of zonal programmes.
"We will be seeking to improve the organisational structure of our zones and to this end, we have created a Zonal Development Committee with responsibilities for club development as well," said Bassarath.
"You will soon see the results of these initiatives and we urge clubs to utilise these resources to allow yourselves to become even better organised than you are at present.
"We will be working with you to have your clubs recognized, registered agencies with the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Arts, and other such state agencies that impact on the work that you do," he said.
Bassarath said the TTCB is creating a cadre of highly-skilled administrators in each zone, who will cross-reference positives and negatives and assist each zone in quality delivery of their competitions, development programmes and club-improvement strategies.
"We will continue to urge you to participate in the democratic process of Board elections as outlined in our constitution. Each club now has two votes in electing six club reps to serve on your zone, with two of these representatives going on to become members of the TTCB," Bassarath said.
"It is this pathway that I travelled myself, as anyone can move from club representative, to zonal rep, to Board member, to Executive Member and eventually, the president of the TTCB," he said.