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Worried about the relatively small number of umpires with both first-class and Test cricket experience, the West Indies Cricket Umpires Association wants the regional board to expand the Test umpires' panel and to limit the number of first-class games in which each umpire can officiate.

The plan calls for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to restrict umpires to three games in the domestic tournaments. Some of them now stand in four.

The association believes its proposal would open the door so that more umpires would be exposed to the highest standard of play.

At the same time, the association is asking the board to expand the Test umpires' panel from two to four.

The strategy was worked out at the recent convention of the West Indies umpires' body held in New York City.

``We need to have more umpires with first class and Test experience,'' said Rudolph Harper, president of the umpires' association. ``So, what we are proposing is that more umpires be given the exposure.''

He said some of the best umpires anywhere could be found in the West Indies but they were too few. That was why the convention had approved the plan.

Indeed, the retired Guyanese judge described Steve Bucknor as the best umpire in the world.

``We think that things have improved,'' said Harper. ``Our umpires are better trained.''

Harper praised the board for its positive attitude to the Umpires' Association, saying the relationship between the two was ``very good''.

He had a complaint which was directed more at Jamaica and Guyana, whose local associations last year went outside of the panel of umpires agreed to by the board and the association and selected other umpires.

``We deprecate that move seriously. We hope that the WICB, as it agreed many years ago, would only select umpires from the panel presented by the association.''

As for the expansion of the pool of first-class umpires, Harper said it was necessary to act in order to end the frustration felt by younger umpires who want a chance to show what they were worth.

``The young umpires are becoming frustrated,'' he said. ``They feel they can't get good matches.

``That's why we are recommending to the board that no umpire must have more than three matches in one season.

That limit would apply to regional first-class games and Test matches, he pointed out.

Harper lamented the fact that too few former first-class and Test cricketers in the Caribbean were coming forward to serve as umpires, and he blamed the abuse often heaped on officials who stand in games for the problem.

``They say they know what umpires go through and they are not going to go through that,'' he explained.

``In cricket, umpiring and groundsmanship are two areas which are taken for granted. We seem to believe that anybody can be an umpire or a groundsman.

Harper called on all cricket associations in the West Indies ``to pay much more regard to the umpires and the groundsmen''.

At the convention, two Barbadians passed the examinations which would allow them to stand in any level of cricket in the region.

One of them was Martin Parris, a Starcom network sports reporter who is the son of Stanton Parris, a retired Test umpire.

The other is Hamilton Reid, who lives in Brooklyn and is one of the leading umpires in the US.