St John's, Antigua and Barbuda - The West Indies Cricket Board has taken a bold and exciting decision. In 2010 the WICB will introduce pink balls to regional four day cricket which will be played under lights.

The WICB announced that these initiatives are being taken in an effort to increase spectator attendance and interest in the four-day game which has waned in recent years.

The tournament will bowl off on January 8th and will have a total of 21 matches with each of the seven teams playing at least one match under lights.

“Spectator interest in regional matches has been declining in recent years and we are looking at different ways to organise our tournaments and ensure greater value for all our stakeholders, including players and spectators. 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,” said WICB CEO Dr Ernest Hilaire.

Dr Hilaire indicated that it was a difficult exercise to include and schedule day/night fixtures but explained that the Board 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.

Dr Hilaire added: “We are hoping to breathe new life into West Indies cricket at all levels and 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.”

The other initiative is the hosting of an entire round in one territory and the creation of a cricket festival atmosphere to offer more scope for sponsorship and event promotion. In addition, this format will pose less logistical and physical challenges with travel and hotel arrangements.

The first round bowls off in Jamaica and from there the tournament will move to the Leeward Islands (January 15-18), then 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 February 26 to March 1.