ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — West Indies cricket chief Julian Hunte has hailed the advent of the High Performance Centre as a major development for the regional game.

The HPC, which will be based at the 3Ws Oval at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, will serve as an academy in fine-tuning the region’s best young players for international cricket.

Sponsored by regional insurance giants Sagicor, the centre will welcome its first batch of players on Monday when it officially opens it doors.

“This is a very significant step forward in the future development of cricket in the Caribbean,” Hunte said Saturday.

“As everyone is fully aware, West Indies cricket has faced several challenges and we are taking steps to ensure that we harness and nurture the talent that we see in this cricket-loving region.

“We have assembled an excellent group of young men to form part of the future of West Indies cricket and I want to wish them all the best.”

Several of the region’s leading cricketers have been nominated by their local boards to be among the first batch of players for the HPC.

These include Jamaican Andre Creary, who led the West Indies Youth team to the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year, along with the Leeward Islands’ wicketkeeper/batsman Devon Thomas who played two One-Day Internationals last year for a West Indies side weakened by the bitter contracts dispute.

Hunte said the move to launch an academy was necessary in the new age of cricket where talent was not enough to make teams successful.

“Gone are the days when you could dominate world sport on talent alone,” Hunte pointed out.

“So we know that in order to compete with the other teams on the world stage, we have to look closely at the development of our young players, and provide them with the skills and equip them with the tools to do the job. This is what we aim to do at the Sagicor West Indies Cricket HPC.”

The HPC will be led by former English county cricketer Toby Radford who will serve as head coach and director.

A former Middlesex head coach and England Cricket Board national coach, Radford said he was excited by what lay ahead for the new institution.

“I know the people of the West Indies are very passionate about the game of cricket and so am I,” he said.

“I am really looking forward to working with this excellent group of young men, who I believe will form the future of West Indies cricket.

“They are all very talented and eager and enthusiastic, and what we do is hone their individual skills, while at the same time, prepare them to represent the region in cricket and recapture West Indian glory.”

While the HPC opens tomorrow, the official launch will be held on June 6.

HPC PLAYERS: Shamarh Brooks, Jason Holder, Shane Dowrich (Barbados), Kyle Corbin, Kevin McClean (Combined Campuses & Colleges), Brandon Bess, Ravindra Chandrika, Veerasammy Permaul (Guyana), Nkrumah Bonner, Andre Creary (Jamaica), Kieran Powell, Devon Thomas (Leeward Islands), Shannon Gabriel (Trinidad and Tobago) Keron Cottoy, Delorn Johnson (Windward Islands).