Chairman Nick Frampton on Wednesday said the 25-page report, completed by former International Cricket Council head Dave Richards, contained few surprises but would be of benefit going forward.

Cricket Victoria this week released the long-awaited document, first announced in October last year.

Among its recommendations is to wind up the Victorian Country Cricket League – an organisation which dates back to 1926 and is behind the annual Melbourne Country Week tournament.

In its place will come five zone boards which would oversee cricket in their region. The board covering the Western Waves region would be based at Ballarat.

“The recommendations are really solid and well-grounded, there’s nothing outlandish I picked up,” Frampton said.

“They all seem quite reasonable and will support better grassroots cricket if they were implemented."

Frampton believed the decision to wind up the VCCL was correct. He said there were questions around the relevance of the VCCL and noted Cricket Victoria had “greater reach” in the regions.

“The reality is like everything, the landscape has changed. We are in a space now where having that extra level of bureaucracy is just not beneficial to country cricket,” he said

Other recommendations include a $50,000 increase in funds allocated to the eight country regions, one being the Western Waves.

The report also called for action on centralising administrative tasks currently completed by each competition. These would be taken up by a paid part-time officer and was “an urgent priority”.

“Such an initiative would free many volunteers to focus their time and energy on club cricket,” the report said.

The state of umpiring was also covered. Most associations “are desperate for umpires and looking ahead see few replacements for umpires who are reaching retirement”.

But the only solution presented was for “increased emphasis on recruitment and training”. Similar recommendations were made regarding club administrators and coaches.

The merit of Victorian Premier Cricket’s annual country round also came into question. Northcote met Melbourne University at Port Fairy in the latest instalment.

“If the objective is to take top players to the country to promote interest, it is not working," the report said.

In addition, a greater percentage of money from the Milo In2Cricket program needed to filter back to clubs.

Frampton said the recommendations backed up what the bush cricket community already suspected.

"In some ways, you can look at (the report) and say ‘yep, it’s everything we already knew’,” he said.

“But having said that, the fact it’s done is important. It signals that Cricket Victoria are prepared to do something about it.

“I look forward to the Cricket Victoria board giving full endorsement to it and over the next 12 to 18 months putting in place a plan to implement it.”

Western Waves president Kelvin White welcomed the report. He was optimistic that “whatever happens will be good for country cricket”.

But White urged officials to hold fire on their feedback until after a Waves meeting at Hamilton in a fortnight.

“What I what to really emphasise is this is just the start of the process,” he said.

“I’ve said that to our member associations in the region, I don’t want everybody to go saying ‘I agree with this, this part is good’.

“I really want our members to have their own discussion and come to our region meeting and formulate a response.

“It’s got implications for the region. On a larger scale, it’s got implications for the Victorian Country Cricket League.”

Cricket Victoria chief executive officer Tony Dodemaide welcomed the report and encouraged stakeholders to provide feedback.

“We feel it is important that the review, which we stress is an independent view of Victorian country cricket, should be shared with the wider cricket community now without any amendments or modifications,” he said.