A progress report from the ICC High performance manager
Bob Woolmer on the months trials and tribulations

It is a rare gift to be able to travel the world, it is a rarer gift to travel the world playing a sport that you love and it is the rarest of gifts to be able to spread the gospel of cricket around the world. It is therefore with honour and humility that I join the many men who make up the ICC development team.

The legacy of cricket passed down from generation to generation is in the hands of us all. From WG Grace to Sir Donald Bradman cricket has spread joy around the world. It has been subject of countless books, biographies, auto biographies and more recently TV shows, outside broadcasts and it has been written about by numerous papers and journals.

Cricket has spawned controversy, jealousy, love, hate, sledging and praise it has been the lifeblood of many. It has created heroes and destroyed those who would sully it. It is simply the greatest game in the world.

Therefore you must imagine my delight to be entrusted with assisting not one team, but four teams on the way to the 2003 world cup in South Africa. Four countries that aspire to become major cricketing nations. If we look at History and in particular soccer and Rugby union, their respective World cup teams have grown from small beginnings to major sporting occasions with many formerly minnow nations actually out performing the more senior countries. This is then the carrot at the end of the stick.

In recent cricketing history a prime example of rapid development is that of Sri Lanka cricket, so much so that from 1976 when I first toured there to 1996. In 20 years they went from a minor affiliate to World Cup champions. They are indeed a wonderful example to Kenya, Namibia, Canada and Holland of what can be achieved. While in reality it will be difficult to compete against the larger countries there are great possibilities with the aforementioned.

Consider the massive population of Canada and the fact that 20,000 people play the game there. In fact the distance between the east and west coast resemble Cape Town to London (6000 miles), Kenya whose cricketing history goes back to the colonial days, Holland a country where cricket struggles because of rather a high water table and then to Namibia formerly South West Africa, who have had to battle hard against massive distances and a small cricket playing population, yet they have proved that by hard work and great desire that they are ready for the next challenge, that of participating in Cricket's grand show.

The one-day game holds many challenges and often many surprises as we have witnessed over the years, so it may not be beyond the realms of reality that the next world cup could see more surprises. How are we going to approach these challenges, well we will start by looking at the major cricketing nations and what makes them as good as they are. Apart from the experience of playing regularly against top opposition, each country has in place a variety of structures that insure a continuous production line, from junior schools to Test level. They have clearly defined paths to the top and they have coach education programmes that ensure good teaching practices and sound basics from a young age.

The major countries also have a massive advantage and that is large sponsorships and income from revenue from the game, while the minor countries starved of TV income, sponsorship income and players who have outside jobs, having to play at a level that demands extra practice times and commitment that the professional has.

The approach for each country has had to be different, each country has its own problems and character but the basic premise has been to identify exactly what we can do and to attempt to put that into action. The plan is as follows

1.      Improving Skill levels
2.      Establishing practice facilities or improving current facility
3.      Providing specialist equipment
4.      Improving fitness levels
5.      Providing specialist coaching
6.      Establishing a support base for each team
7.      Ensuring a higher level of competition in the build up to the world cup
8.      Providing a domestic or external three day competition or matches

Then there are the problems that have to be overcome

-       The time available to practice
-       The facilities available
-       The technology 
-       The equipment 
-       The manpower 
-       The coaches 
-       Medical assistance and availability of that assistance 
-       Regular competition against players of similar preparedness. 

So there is plenty of work to do and we will be assembling teams from around the globe to assist these countries wherever we can. This has come about after long and careful consultation with each country and of course each country has plenty of work to do in order to be better at the world cup.

Naturally too all the countries have aspirations to improve the level of cricket they are playing and to this end we will be trying to identify the sort of structures that will ensure a natural progression to the highest level. It is indeed the vision of the ICC to globalise the game and to foster the game wherever people want and have the time to play it!

While the task sounds daunting, it is also a wonderful challenge.

© ICC