Now that the West Indies cricketers are not able to secure contracts with English Counties as obtained during their glory days, former West Indies opener Desmond Haynes is suggesting that the WICB turns its attention to North America. The arrangement of games in the USA and Canada, Haynes argued, would provide the financial fillip that is required to aid regional cricket programmes. "At present, the West Indies Board are saying that they have no money, so it means that there are a lot of programmes that people would like to put in place - they're not going to be implemented because they cannot be implemented unless you got money. "That would be my first goal, to see how I can get linkage with North America to see how best we can get some sort of cricket matches where West Indies players can be committed for four, five years in the United States... trying to raise some money in order to help with our cricket," Haynes said. The Barbadian said the region is looking to rake in a lot of cash from the hosting of World Cup Cricket 2007, "but we still need programmes for us to be more successful", he added. He suggested that leading up to the World Cup, the Board should introduce more limited-overs matches in the region. "What are we doing leading up to 2007? I would start thinking about playing a lot of one-day cricket... I think that if we're going to host the World Cup... we want to get into the finals, so our young players have to know about cricket. "Why is it that we cannot organise Twenty-20 in the Caribbean so that we can get our guys turned to one-day cricket?" he asked. Haynes, who notched over 7,000 runs in both Test and one-day cricket for the West Indies, rued the current state of the game in the Caribbean. The Windies are languishing at the bottom of the chart among the eight Test-playing nations, ahead of only minnows Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. "For someone like me who has played cricket for West Indies at the highest level in our glory days I don't feel good at the state of our cricket at the present moment. And the hurtful thing about it is I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel," he said. He acknowledged that the selectors' job was difficult as the regional competition from which the players are drawn is mediocre. He said players could dominate the Carib Cup Cricket but still not be good enough to play Test cricket. Haynes proposed that each island should contract overseas players to strengthen their teams to give them a more competitive edge and subsequently raise the quality of play. The ex-Windies star, who was recently appointed secretary of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), said critics should begin to take a look at the Board instead of blaming the players. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com