BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies Cricket Board chief executive Ernest Hilaire has hailed the start of the High Performance Centre as critical to the reversal of the fortunes of West Indies cricket.
The top official told CMC Sports that preparation was the key to any revival and he expected the HPC to function in this regard.
“The HPC is an instrument of support that is necessary to prepare the next generation,” Hilaire said.
“You need to prepare the next generation of players. You need to prepare those on the fringe of selection. You need to prepare the eight year olds that are now coming up. We have not been doing that, so we have been failing them. So let us start doing it now.
“Like someone said ‘get to work Hilaire’. Of course I will get to work. We will do what has to be done and then we will progress.”
The HPC was officially unveiled on Sunday at the UWI Cave Hill Campus here where it will be based, under the direction of head coach Toby Radford.
Last week, it welcomed its first batch of 15 players which included former West Indies Under-19 captains Andre Creary and Shamarh Brooks.
Hilaire pointed out, however, that the HPC was just part of an overall cricket development plan currently being instituted by the WICB.
“There is also the 17 to 19, 15 to 17, 12 to 15 and Under-12 kiddies programme age groups [which] will be catered for and there will be a clear pathway,” Hilaire explained.
“You can almost say to an eight-year-old I can trace the programmes you will be in until you make it to the West Indies team.”
He continued: “This HPC is the second step along the way to recovery. We had the re-activation of the A team and then we will activate community coaching.
“We will re-activate our kiddies programme and you will see by October, five programmes being implemented, all operating at the same time with a view of preparing our next generation of West Indies cricket.”
Hilaire noted there were already cricket development programmes in regional territories which would support the WICB’s efforts.
He added that while these programmes would be developed based on local requirements, there was a level of integration that was also needed.
“Jamaica has a programme, Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana just started theirs…. and they are not exact replications of each other,” Hilaire said.
“We need to be careful about the sameness. Each programme is tailored to local needs. That is what is important, the integration of the programmes.”
