BRIDGETOWN (Reuters)
Barbados, the tiny West Indian island that has produced some of the world's finest cricketers, is seeking to recapture its past glories.

A four-year plan, presented by Barbados Cricket Association president Stephen Alleyne, aims at strengthening the game at all levels. It envisages developing cricket in schools and through an enhanced club structure with retainers for players representing the island.

"It's an ambitious plan, but Barbados has always been synonymous with cricketing excellence, so our plans need to be ambitious," Alleyne told a news conference. "The standard of our cricket and our ability to produce world class cricketers with a capacity to compete successfully at the highest level has been impaired."

The decline in West Indies cricket, which has accelerated over the past six years since they were deposed by Australia as unofficial world champions, has been blamed on the distractions of U.S. sports and a failure to invest in the game.

"The reasons cited for this decline by observers are many and varied," Alleyne said. "We may never be able to create the same societal influences that helped to fashion our greats. But suppose we could draw on the skill and experience of some of those cricketers who have trod that path, maybe we can dream again."

Barbados, only 460 square kilometres with a population of less than 300,000, has produced an astonishing numbers of world class cricketers, notably the three Ws: Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott, as well as Garfield Sobers and, more recently, opening batsmen Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.

In 1967 a Barbados team captained by Sobers, and with great West Indies fast bowlers Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, took on a Rest of the World XI to mark the island's independence. The Rest of the World, who included two members of West Indies team in Guyana's Rohan Khanai and Lance Gibbs, won by 262 runs.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd