A coaching trip to Westport and the Buller region proved an eye-opener for Canterbury coach Garry MacDonald and captain Gary Stead this week.

Westport is a genuine outpost in cricket terms, but the Canterbury pair found an impressive set-up with interest high in cricket.

"There are some good people doing good things for cricket over there like Barry Townrow and Kevin Scanlon.

"We had three different groups for coaching for two hour sessions. They all turned out in their whites and it was most impressive," MacDonald said.

He's even returned to Christchurch with a couple of names under his belt for further development.

Two fast-medium bowlers are likely to join the Canterbury side for a practice in its Shell Trophy build-up. MacDonald did not think it would be wise to bring the players in for Super Max practice because it was not the best atmosphere for new players to be exposed to cricket.

"It's a long time since I've been over there but I was most impressed, " MacDonald said.

He recalled that it was a Westport product Ben Blair, who is now playing fullback for the Ranfurly Shield-holding Canterbury team, that he selected at age 15 for a Canterbury under-17 team and who went on to win a tournament for the team was playing in.

"For a town of 5000 people, it is amazing how much ability there is over in Westport," he said.

Greymouth had more numbers but the players did not seem to have quite the talent that was on offer in Westport.

"I'm very pleased I went, it was quite an eye-opener. The thing is though that all the talented kids play everything whether it is rugby, league or cricket. They are all multi-skilled and trying to zero them in to cricket is difficult," he said.

Canterbury Cricket chief executive Tony Murdoch said Buller was quite a model for a small association.

"I now believe more fervently that we have a role to play to help the districts," he said.

MacDonald and Stead showed how to direct practices in Buller and Murdoch felt that an association like Canterbury had to do a lot more to set up a training model for use by schools and clubs throughout the region.

© CricInfo