Gibson, 40, was this week persuaded to relinquish his role as England's bowling coach, which he has held since 2007, and take up an ambitious new coaching position at the WICB, in which he will be responsible for all representative sides, from age-group level right up to the Test team. With that in mind, he begins his stint at an opportune time, following an impressive showing from the West Indies Under-19 team, who finished a creditable third in the recent World Cup in New Zealand.

"It's obviously an exciting new time for me," Gibson told BBC Sport. "Things were going well with England, but the call to come back and try to do my part to resurrect West Indies cricket was one I couldn't say no to.

"Grass-roots cricket is going to be the biggest challenge over the next couple of years," he added. "We'll be spending time and resources there, because the most important thing in sport is youth, and what's coming up behind the players who are there now. We need to put time, money and effort into those guys."

The senior West Indies team is currently in Australia preparing for their one-day series, with Gibson set to take charge for their home series against Zimbabwe next month. Despite the recent upsurge in the team's fortunes, following a spirited display in their 2-0 Test defeat against Australia before Christmas, Gibson still feels that the ghosts of West Indies' glory days of the 1980s and early 90s are undermining their ambitions.

"There's going to be a lot of challenges, the first of which will be getting the team to play as a team and forget about the glory days," he said. "A lot's been made about that, and the young players have a lot to live up to, and that can sometimes be a bit of a burden. They need to forget about history, and think about the here-and-now."