ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) officially announced yesterday a new-look 2010 regional first-class season that will include unprecedented day/night matches.

Shortened from last year’s home-and-away round-robin format because of funding issues, 21 matches will be played over a two-month period, starting on January 8.

For the first time there will be day/night matches with pink balls and one territory will stage an entire round.

With dwindling interest in recent years, the WICB’s chief executive officer Ernest Hilaire believes the innovations should help to re-energise the tournament.

“We are looking at different ways to organise our tournaments and ensure greater value for all our stakeholders, including players and spectators,” Hilaire said in a WICB press release.

“We at the WICB aim to bring the game back to the fans and we believe the new format of having day/night cricket in the four-day tournament will help to generate public interest and also be a winner with the players and officials,” he added.

First-round matches will be played in Jamaica, then move to the Leeward Islands, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad, with the final round in the Windward Islands.

For the January 8 firstround matches in Jamaica, the hosts begin their title defence against the Windward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago play Combined Campuses and Colleges and Barbados tackle the Leeward Islands.

The hosting of an entire round in one territory, coupled with the creation of a cricket festival atmosphere to “offer more scope for sponsorship and event promotion”, is also designed to pose less logistical and physical challenges with travel and hotel arrangements.

Hilaire indicated that it was a difficult exercise to include and schedule day/night fixtures, but explained the WICB had to be brave and try new things and approaches.

As part of the new set-up, the data will be collected on the impact on players, spectators, match officials and spectators.

“At the conclusion the format will be reviewed and compared to experiences with other formats used over the last decade,” the WICB release stated.

Hilaire said the WICB is hoping to “breathe new life into West Indies cricket at all levels”.

He said a major part of that is to get fans coming back to the game they love.

“We are looking at ways of re-engineering the game and raising the standards on and off the field. We will also be looking to utilise some of the wonderful facilities we have in the region as we seek to develop players who will be able to represent the people of the Caribbean at the highest level.”

After the first round bowls off on January 8-11 in Jamaica, the tournament moves to the Leeward Islands (January 15-18), to Barbados for two rounds (January 22-25 and January 25 to February 1).

There will be a break from February 2 to 11, before play resumes in Guyana for the fifth round (January 12-15).

The penultimate round will be in Trinidad (February 19-22) before the final round in the Windwards on January 26 to March 1.