Outgoing Cricket Tasmania deputy chairman Chris Mitchell says the future of the Greater Northern Raiders has been well and truly secured following the takeover of the program by the sports governing body in the state for the upcoming season and beyond.
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Mitchell, who has also stepped down from his position as chairman of the Raiders after a two-year term, will hand the reins back over to Richard Bennett, who was the club's inaugural chairman, but with a completely new structure underneath him.
After collating feedback from a survey that was sent out to 130 stakeholders, Cricket Tasmania will the run the Raiders program as part of its high performance program in the north of the state, allowing them to double their current investment.
Mitchell the end result will be extra resources for all teams and players under the Raiders banner.
"It's something the club has been aiming for because if we talk about getting coaches up here and high performance, the Raiders are high performance," he said.
"If you want to play male or female Premier League cricket in the north you have to represent the Raiders.
"This change means we are looking at more coaches involved and Richard will have someone come on board to help him.
"The program will now have better tenure and security because it is fully funded by Cricket Tasmania.
"I wanted to get this sorted before I finished up, and I'm pretty happy with where we have got it to."
Bennett will chair a committee consisting of one member each from Cricket Tasmania, Cricket North West and Cricket North, along with three independent people to oversee the program.
Coaching roles are set to be announced next week, and Mitchell believes that, along with the added resources, makes the Raiders a more attractive proposition to potential players.
"At the end of the day if we can provide a good product in terms of grounds and coaching then that will make it attractive for players from both the north and north-west to come and play for us,' Mitchell said.
"If there is no point of difference between Raiders and their local club side then why would they want to come and play for us.
"We've got more resources now for players and we have a long-term plan in place now so players can commit knowing there will be a program and I think the upcoming coaching appointments will be viewed quite favourably."
Mitchell did admit, however, that the lack of a genuine home base for the club was still an issue which he hoped could be allayed with this new direction.
"Not having a home ground is still difficult because when you play at various other club's grounds you feel like you are imposing on them a bit," he said.
"Ideally we would like to play more games at UTAS Stadium, and with Cricket Tasmania fully behind us now, hopefully there is more chance of doing that."
