A committee led by former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has recommended the formation of a professional league for West Indies cricket. The announcement was made by Grenada's prime minister Keith Mitchell on the final day of the Caricom summit in Bridgetown. The reversal of the declining fortunes of the West Indies cricket team was discussed by leaders of the 15-member grouping. They also reviewed the staging of the World Cup in the Caribbean earlier this year. The Patterson committee was established by the West Indies Cricket Board to come up with a type of development plan for the game which is largely run on amateur lines in the region. Apart from a professional league, Dr Mitchell said it was proposed that an academy to train aspiring international cricketers be set up at the University of the West indies. He also hinted at a new era of investment in player development. 'World Cup Success' Dr Mitchell said: "We have faltered on that, we have failed them (cricketers) despite all the problems they created. "We have to take responsibility for not having done sufficient to advance the development of our cricket." The summit also heard from Chris Dehring, the CEO of the World Cup in the West Indies. Mr Dehring extolled the event's financial and organisational success although it came under some criticism over attendances. He said numbers -- both in the stands and revenues -- compared favourably with the previous world cup in South Africa -- even though the region had a much smaller population base. Mr Dehring said: "We sold 676,000 tickets making it the largest ticketing event ever held in the Caribbean. We've done ourselves proud." Revenues, he told reporters, were projected to be the highest in World Cup history at US$32 million. Reprinted from bbccaribbean.com