It seems that the standard of North West cricket is the hot topic again and it has almost become a seasonal discussion over the past five or six years after every round of the Irish Senior and Ulster cups. I'm not sure the rose tinted glasses make me the ideal candidate to discuss the whole scenario however for what its worth I have my own thoughts on things as they stand.

Firstly, and at the outset I firmly believe there is very little between the North West and the NCU at either interprovincial or club level. Last week at Eglinton was a prime example when two very evenly matched teams were separated by an injury to one key player and big performances from two individuals who could just as easily have been playing on the other side. In the head-to-heads at club level, Bready who haven't won a league match yet were much too strong for CIYMS and are kicking themselves that they didn't beat Civil Service North on Saturday as well. Strabane beat a Lisburn side that included three players who would be classed as overseas professionals were they playing here before coming unstuck at Comber in Round 2 while Fox Lodge totally outplayed Carrickfergus.

Waringstown beat Donemana twice fair enough and for my money that is the only difference between the clubs in the two regions. The Lawn side along with Instonians and North Down set a very clear standard in the Belfast area while Coleraine, Donemana and Brigade do likewise here. Pound for pound the NCU trio are better than the best in the North West however below that the shoe would be on the other foot.

Leinster bring a very different angle into the equation and while I can't claim to be any kind of socio-political analyst I suspect that the legacy brought about by the Celtic Tiger continues to live on despite the current climate. The affluence of the 90's may be watered down to some extent but the region still holds major economic advantages over the rest of the country and probably continues to reap some degree of reward for that.

It hasn't hurt to have RSA on the doorstep either of course and that has provided the kind of clout that sides North of the border can only dream about. It isn't all about money for sure - there are plenty of people working tirelessly in Leinster to build from grass roots. Brian O'Rourke has done a superb job down there and people like Matt Dwyer and Jim Bennett have given a lifetime of service in maintaining the standards.

For all of that there is a problem in the North West and for me the worry is in the domestic game. Standards are much lower now than they were 20 years ago and you need only look at the stats for evidence. The same people who dominated the averages in 1993 are pretty much still doing it and often with only half the runs and wickets that they had back then.

There are notable exceptions for sure - Stuart Thompson, Andy McBrine, Niall McDonnell, David Rankin and several others have broken into the ranks and all look to have big futures ahead of them. That handful of players however is a poor return on two decades of growth and you don't have to look too far for the biggest cause of that. For the past 20 years and more, clubs here have invested in professionals simply for the here and now. Some of them returned year on year and while they did the business on the pitch a blind eye was turned to the fact that the arse was falling out of their real responsibility.

There is no point in personalising this but look around the top flight of North West cricket today and ask yourself where is Wasti's legacy at Brigade; where is Hasan Raza's legacy at Glendermott, or Jonathan Beukes' at Strabane? What has Venkat Patrap left behind in the North West, or Pravajan Mullick or Kamran Akmal? Huge amounts of money were paid out not just at those clubs but at plenty of others too and there is nothing to show for it today. I'm guessing that 90% of the fresh faces that will make up the next generation of top North West cricketers have come through Bobby Rao at one time or another. And for their part the clubs who paid out those fortunes for such little return are now haemorrhaging money they don't have in trying to stay afloat and it is that that is ultimately costing the North West.

You would have thought that serious lessons would be learned in the wake of Limavady's situation however it appears not. Clubs simply continue to try and buy their way through these times and you can only see it getting worse. Smaller clubs have been affected badly too and the cheaper option for the big boys now is to circle over the best talent around and dangle a few carrots their direction. That has a knock-on effect at the lower level and is very demoralising for clubs who have no way of stopping it.

The solution to it all could be in the Think Tank's plan for a Premier Division licence from 2015. The document states that in order to acquire a licence clubs must have at least two under-age teams competing in their relevant leagues and if the Union is brave enough to stick by that, we may be starting back on the road to recovery.

Andrew Fleming, Jonny Robinson and one or two others did quite a bit of work last year in trying to get a new North West T20 competition off the ground and that tournament will definitely begin in 2014. There are 16 teams in the top two divisions and the idea will be to have an open draw from the start, meaning that Championship and Premiership sides will play each other in T20 format. Whether it is straight knockout or round robin has yet to be agreed but the games will be played on evenings when there wouldn't otherwise be any cricket. The hope would be to bring new people into the sport and spectators would be asked to pay £1 to watch matches with the proceeds going straight into a youth development fund.

I should also acknowledge the efforts of Brian Allen as well and the fact that our CDO is flat out working in schools across an 80-mile radius in the North West. Brian is currently engaged in a girls Super-8 competition as well as a Kwik Cricket competition for various age groups, the finals of which will hopefully be played in Bready's top field on the same day as the North West Inter-Provincial T20 day. We've been encouraging Brian to blow his own trumpet a bit louder because he isn't getting the credit for the vast amount of work he is doing so maybe that cricket festival will let folk see his efforts on our behalf.

So that's my thoughts and no doubt you will have your own. North West cricket is struggling a bit at the minute and while we're not looking to shy away from that, it can be fixed if clubs buy into it. Only time will tell if we can agree a plan that suits us all.