The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has allocated US $2 million dollars to cricket development programmes for the financial year 2002-2003.

Of this sum, US $600,000 will be equally allocated between the six territorial boards and US $1.4 million will go to the WICB's cricket development programme.

This was revealed by the Rev. Wes Hall, president of the WICB, at a news conference at the Trinidad Hilton Hotel on Monday following a WICB directors' meeting over the weekend.

Rev. Hall noted that this allocation for development was a significant increase over last year when only US $260,000 was budgeted.

The Development Programme that is based on the WICB's Strategic Plan is a key facet of WICB business plan approved for the financial year that runs from October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003.

The Cricket Development programme will, for the first time enable the WICB to appoint a cricket development officer in each of the six territories by January 2003.

There will also be a focus on the development and training of young fast bowlers. To this end, a fast-bowling clinic will be held starting December 9 this year.

Over the next year, the regional coaching programme will also be expanded and re-designed with the introduction of new training modules complemented by audio-visual materials.

The WICB President announced that the Board will be encouraging former West Indies players who are interested in coaching to obtain the relevant training and certification.

In this regard, he applauded the participation and certification of Kenny Benjamin, Reon King and Keith Arthurton in the Level 2 coaching programme noting that they had all done "exceedingly well".

Improvement of the technical fundamentals of young batsmen will be another focus of the development programme in the coming year.

In addition, human resource development will be pursued in areas such as literacy and numeracy, personal development and computer literacy.

The WICB has also allocated an additional US $250,000 to the developmental competitions that nurture emerging players at the Under-15 and Under-19 levels.

© CricInfo Ltd.