(Trinidad Guardian) West Indies and Zimbabwe have become the first Full Member nations to receive ICC funding totalling approximately $28.7m over a three-year period as part of its Targeted Assistance and Performance Programme (TAPP) aimed at developing more competitive teams at the highest level. At their Executive Board meeting in Colombo, the ICC’s TAPP awarded close to $20 million to the West Indies through TAPP and $7.2 million each to Zimbabwe and Netherlands.
The TAPP programme, which formed part of the ICC’s strategic plan for 2011-2015, began at the start of the year, with a $75.6 million fund aimed at giving teams at all levels a chance to generate funding support from the ICC in order to improve team performance. The ICC received seven applications overall, of which five awards were made and two boards, including Cricket Canada, were asked to re-submit their applications next year. Ireland and Scotland were the first to receive TAPP assistance in June this year, at the end of the ICC’s annual conference in Kuala Lumpur, with an award of $500,000 per annum for three years.
Countries that would like to receive funding are asked to go through a bidding process starting with a formal application that could lead up to a possible presentation, before the award is recommended by the ICC’s finance and commercial affairs committee to the Board. The ICC then works with the Board to develop a three-year MOU to detail the specific activities to be supported by the funding.
Ireland, for example, would use the funding to strengthen its domestic structure and academy programme and engage with other boards to stage more international games at home. In responding to the award by the Board following the meeting in Colombo, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond (KNCB) or the Dutch cricket board listed its TAPP funding targets as follows: more international matches for the Dutch team, hiring more support to prepare the team for the 2015 World Cup, greater domestic provincial cricket, support for players, programmes and events, and a clear pathway for the best young players in Dutch cricket. Specific details with the West Indies and Zimbabwe Boards as regards to the TAPP award, a ICC spokesman said, would be worked out next week.
