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Last week, at about the time the World Cup began to touch the senses, the England and Wales Cricket Board took a remarkable initiative. Under the slogan Cricket Live '99 more than 2,000 delegates attended the two-day Rover World Cricket Conference and Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.

This was the first of its kind anywhere and so impressive was the contributing cast assembled by the ECB that luminaries such as Rodney Marsh, Jimmy Cook, Peter Kirsten, Brian Davis and Roger Harper flew in - ``just to listen'' said Cook, ``and learn'' added Marsh.

It is easy enough, and trendy these days, to knock administrators. The ECB get their share of stick and often deserve it. For the staging of this conference, however, and for the message on which it was based - ``Developing cricket from playground to Test arena'' - they deserve nothing but garlands.

The event was conceived by Hugh Morris, the ECB's technical director, and Gordon Lord, the National Coaching Scheme co-ordinator. The cost of staging it soared way over budget, the odd performer pulled out moments before the starter's gun but nothing could deter Morris and Lord from their ambition. As a result the delegates, a who's who of players, coaches and teachers from all levels of the game themselves, were treated to an orgy of cricket energy and education.

The conference was structured in three areas. Hour-long seminars were given in the main arena where there was plenty of space for practical demonstrations by young county cricketers. Workshops were held twice a day. In the exhibition hall next door, manufacturers, boards and associations, travel companies, specialist sports injuries people, photographers, researchers and Rover cars exhibited their products. Children were instructed in fielding drills, handicapped cricketers played in the artificial nets and Kwik Cricket had its roadshow on display. As you might imagine, the place fairly buzzed.

The seminars began with a tour de force from Terry Jenner, the Australian leg-spinner and guru to Shane Warne. Jenner combined wit with a spellbinding examination of the most difficult art in the game. It wouldn't be right to say he unravelled the mysteries - ``need months mate not minutes'' - but he preached the simplicities of a sideways action, though not too sideways, and the conviction of the bowler to really spin the ball. He went through the position of the hand for all the wrist-spinning variations and he had fun with the flipper, which he confessed he wasn't much cop at himself.

Jenner was followed by Bob Woolmer, whose ideas are generally worth an ear. Woolmer began with his ``Patterns for Success'', which feature the six Ss - skill, speed, spirit, strength, stamina and suppleness that are the centrepiece of his philosophy. He went on to talk about batting against spin bowlers and focused on some original ways of attacking. Yes, the reverse sweep and the reverse ``hit'' were there in all their glory.

Dale Benkenstein, who is in South Africa's World Cup squad, filled in for Jonty Rhodes with some intriguing thoughts on the mental side of fielding, the work required to produce excellence, and he revealed some of the tricks of the trade which are serving the South Africans so well.

The first day was wrapped up by Frank Dick, one time coach to the British athletics team and mentor and motivator to numerous top-class sportsmen, Boris Becker and Daley Thompson among them. Dick's lecture was entitled ``Winning'' and it was brilliant, both funny and exciting. He talked about mountain people - sportsmen with aspirations and dreams - and valley people - the less motivated, who settle in the comfort zone. He talked about ``the edge'', the place where sportsmen must go to be truly tested and about how coaches can get them there he said that coaches should not worry about themselves, or about development for that matter, but only about improving the performance of their players.

The second day was no less fascinating. Desmond Haynes spoke with considerable animation and excitement about batting against fast bowling. Sir Richard Hadlee spoke about fast bowling and most particularly the need for either a sideways action or a front-on action, not a ``mixed'' action, as he called the wrong way to do it.

Bob Taylor put two young wicketkeepers through the blender; Dr Steve Bull, the Team England psychologist, gave a punchy talk entitled ``Developing Mental Toughness'', with special reference to the need for good preparation and extensive visualisation; and finally came a Superstars panel, with Barry Richards and Mushtaq Mohammed joining Haynes, Hadlee and Taylor in the hot seat.

The men from the ECB told us that 2.4 million people in Britain play cricket, of which 1.5 million are children. The development game is alive and well and there is, it would appear, a future after all. ``Good coaches coach technique,'' said Morris, ``great coaches coach people.'' Well people, the next time Cricket Live is in your neck of the woods, pop in. You can't go wrong.