New era for Wiltshire as Holman reveals big plans (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

New era for Wiltshire as Holman reveals big plans

Wiltshire Cricket Board's new look are, from left, chairman Bob Holman, president Norman Peters and administrator Chris Sheppard 16385/3WILTSHIRE will continue to be a light bearer in minor county and national cricket. That is the objective of the new chairman of Wiltshire Cricket Board, Bob Holman.

Holman wants Wiltshire to be the leading minor county in Britain and sees a professional approach which pushes youth development as the way to get there.

The former Devizes player said: "Durham was a minor county and they have become a first class county. It would be amazing in the future if we could too.

"We have continued to promote the game in the way it should be. Nationally we have been a few years ahead."

Holman, 50, has taken over from former chairman Norman Peters who has become the organisation's first president.

Holman will now be in charge of organising everything from fixtures to groundsmen to umpires to the Wiltshire Cricket Board website, which they hope to be up and running soon.

He will not, however, be in charge of the senior county side which is a separate entity to the board.

Self-made businessman Holman, from All Cannings, is determined to make Wiltshire the number one minor county in the country and has given himself time off work to ensure this will happen.

"Now I am on the board I can do something. I just have a passion about this game and I have something to give something back.

"Running your own business can only help in running something like this because this is a business and you have to see it as such.

"I don't do anything half-heartedly. I do it to the best of my ability or I won't say yes.

"Everyone is going in the right direction but that's only happened in the last few years.

"We all want the best for Wiltshire cricket."

An example of Holman's business ethos is the creation of a sponsorship director and a media director.

While the sponsorship position has been filled by former ECB development director Terry Blake, the man behind the Vodafone/ECB and nPower cricket contracts, the media vacancy is yet to be filled.

"I am really coordinating. I would love to say I am a Clive Woodward look and think a like. I want mostly the desire but also a coordination.

"We have to compete not just necessarily against other cricket counties but against other sports and we have to make ourselves attractive because there's so much going on sportswise for children."

Holman, who also coaches a youth team at All Cannings Cricket Club, praised the coaches association, which he was chairman of before his promotion.

An example of his work in cricket, it has become a slick and professional outfit over the past five years.

"Our new coach, Ali Goddard, is going to take it on to the next level.

"We have a real dedicated team. We have a group of extremely able and competent coaches in the county.

"Our elite lads are being coached by elite coaches and our coaches develop almost unknowingly.

"As a result the coaching activities are a lot more streamlined and our kids are improving.

"We have been developing players that first class counties around us have been taking and that is fine. It shows we are doing it right.

"We want to encourage youngsters to take up cricket because the bigger base we have here the better. That's where the kwik cricket festivals come in.

"One of those youngsters at the kwik cricket could be an England player in ten years time."

Administrator for the Wiltshire Cricket Board, Chris Sheppard, said he was sure they had the right man for the job.

"With Bob coming in as chairman we realised a year to 18 months ago the game was going to change. We needed a 21st century approach.

"To that end Bob's history stood him in good stead and he was the man for the job.

"With the ideas he's had already so we have no doubts the right decision has been made by the board."

Sheppard added Wiltshire, who regularly attend the regional assemblies and ECB board meetings, was looking to become influential in the games development.

"There's a great amount of debate how the local game is run by the ECB but we are confident that our approach will fit in with any future requirements for funding. We hope to be active in forming ECBs plans for how recreational cricket will be run.

"Going back ten years when we first formed Richard Gulliver it was a venture between a sports council, the district council and what was then known as the National Cricket Association.

"At that stage Wilshire Cricket was the forefront and it's the aim to get it back in the new era."