The England and Wales Cricket Board has announced that cash support for ICC Europe and the Associate/Affiliate members has been increased to a record £480,000 in 2014.
In addition to this cash support, ECB will invest in coaching programmes to support the members of coaching associations amongst the 5,000 active coaches now qualified in Europe outside of England and Wales.
The Associate and Affiliate Members of ICC Europe are supported by the ECB Regional Training Team and the Howzat coaching resource has been translated to support the continued expansion of cricket throughout the continent.
To underpin the proposed new opportunities being offered for High Performing Associates and Affiliates by the changes within ICC, ECB is providing the resource to qualify 22 European coaches on the Level 3 programme and 15 coaches on the Level 4 programme.
All the coaches on the Level 4 programme are provided with individual mentors and the resources available will include the innovative Wings to Fly coaching programme .
This ECB investment adds a further £120,000 of value to ICC members in Europe.
ECB Chief Executive David Collier commented: “ECB has been excited to see the excellent progress made in the expansion of cricket throughout Europe and by European Teams in global events.
"The participation of both Scotland and Ireland in the forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup reflects well on the leadership of cricket in Europe and the number of active coaches in Europe will further expand the game's participation in future years.
"We congratulate the European Associate Director on the ICC Board Keith Oliver for his leadership in driving many of these new projects and ECB has now committed to running the Level 3 and 4 programmes on a bi-annual basis with the next intake being in 2015 to raise the number of Level 3 and 4 coaches prior to the ICC Cricket World Cup to be held in England and Wales in 2019.
“Mr Oliver has been a positive influence on the ICC Board and his quiet but persuasive advocacy setting out issues, previously not drawn to larger full members’ attention, has resulted in some beneficial outcomes for Associate and Affiliate members everywhere and I am sure that ECB will continue to work closely with Mr Oliver for the good of European cricket.”