ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Cricket West Indies (CWI) has turned to one of New Zealand’s most respected coaching minds in a bid to resurrect the region’s batting fortunes, appointing Bob Carter as batting consultant on a one-year contract that carries significant short- and long-term implications.

The 30-year coaching veteran officially began his role on September 1, with his first assignment set to take him on a comprehensive tour of all six first-class territories later this month.

His mandate is twofold: Firstly, to provide immediate technical support to elite and emerging batters and, secondly, to fundamentally strengthen the coaching infrastructure that underpins batting development across the region.

Carter will work across CWI’s men’s, women’s, and age-group programmes, with his arrival timed to address pressing concerns ahead of a gruelling international schedule.

The West Indies men’s team faces the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in February and March 2027, followed by a World Cup preparation window that will define the programme’s immediate success.

The regional tour will see Carter visit Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands, working directly with players and coaches at each stop.

His stint extends beyond on-field technical work and will include the development of batting modules that will be embedded in CWI’s coaching pathway, ensuring his influence reaches coaches at every level.

“West Indies cricket has a proud tradition of producing outstanding batsmen, and my job is to help build the base to produce future generations of world-class players,” Carter said. “My focus has always been on supporting players and coaches to reach their full potential, and I am looking forward to working alongside the regional and high-performance coaches to help achieve that.”

Carter brings a distinguished resume to the role, most recently serving as high-performance coach with New Zealand Cricket from 2012 to 2025.

He also held the position of head coach of the New Zealand Women’s team from 2019 to 2022 and twice served as men’s assistant coach.

His domestic coaching credentials include head coaching roles with Canterbury and Wellington, alongside a stint as director of cricket at Northamptonshire County Cricket Club in England.

CWI Director of Cricket Miles Bascombe emphasised that the appointment is as much about coaching education as player development, insisting the true measure of success will be measured over years, not months.

“West Indies teams will participate in at least six global events over the next 24-30 months, including the Men’s World Cup Qualifier next February. The steps we take now are intended to lay the groundwork for success. Bob’s immediate job is to raise the technical standard heading into these events,” said Bascombe.

“But the measure of this appointment is not what our top six look like in 12 months. It is whether the coaches he works with come out of it better at teaching batting than they went in, and whether that reaches the coaching education modules the rest of the region is taught from. That is what lasts.”

The appointment follows recommendations from CWI’s Cricket Strategy and Officiating Committee, which identified specialist technical intervention and regional coaching system strengthening as critical priorities for the development of West Indies cricket.