ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — The West Indies Cricket Board has proposed two new Twenty20 competitions, and a Beach Cricket project that it hopes will help to rejuvenate interest in the game.

The new competitions aimed, particularly at children and younger audiences between ages 18 to 24, forms part of a new marketing thrust that seeks to transform the game at all levels.

The initiatives are contained in a new marketing package entitled, Transforming West Indies Cricket — The Legacy Begins Here, Be Part of It, to be distributed to prospective commercial partners.

“These are exciting times for West Indies Cricket,” said Terry Blake, the former commercial director of the England & Wales Cricket Board, who was hired to lead the marketing revival of the WICB.

“The senior men’s and women’s teams are about to feature in the International Cricket Council’s World Twenty 20, the Under-19s came third in the recent Youth World Cup in New Zealand, and the High Performance Centre is opening in Barbados in May.”

He added: “The men’s team has a talented new coach, and this is a perfect time for commercial partners to support what I believe is an outstanding portfolio of regional events that will attract interest around the region.”

The WICB is set to stage a regional Twenty20 championship from July 22 to 31 this year. The current seven regional sides, and an invitational side from the Americas — either the United States or Canada — shall take part in the competition.

The incentive for the top two sides is that they would qualify for the Champions League Twenty20 to be contested two months later in India.

The WICB has also advised that the second edition of the competition will take place in January next year.

Building on the success of the T20 format, and possibly inspired by disgraced American business executive Allen Stanford, another T20 competition called the Calypso Cup is being introduced.

The Calyspo Cup is styled along the lines of Stanford’s Super Series. It is a brand new event capitalising on the appeal of T20 and highlighting the appeal of the Caribbean as a destination for overseas teams and their fans.

“In an exciting new joint initiative with the England & Wales Cricket Board, WICB will host a single or double venue event in a two-week slot in high season,” the prospectus said.

Eight teams — four from the Caribbean, three English counties, and an overseas team — will contest the event which the WICB plans to fully televise internationally.

The other innovation by the WICB will build on a resource that is quite dominant in many Caribbean islands — the beach.

It is envisaged that the beach cricket competition will be piloted in one island during the last quarter of this year, and then rolled out across the Caribbean in 2011.

Although essentially a grass-roots initiative, it will involve star-quality former and current players, playing in mini-beach stadiums, and the WICB believes it’s a perfect vehicle to attract the younger generation, and encourage more people to play on the beach.

The WICB is already in discussions with the broadcast market about creating television content that will encapsulate everything that is good about the Caribbean, cricket, refreshments, music, and a glorious beach setting.

Blake noted that discussions will be held with regional boards, governments, tourist boards, and commercial partners to decide on where the events will be played.

“We have already had a healthy degree of interest from the business community, and we look forward to creating valuable, cost-effective sponsorship packages that reflect the game from the grass-roots right up to the international arena,” he said.