Norfolk player/coach Chris Brown is set to play a key role in the development of cricket in the Americas.

Brown, 36, last year qualified as a Level Four coach, putting him alongside the top cricket coaches in the country. The off-spinner has now been invited to be the spin bowling coach at the ICC Americas High Performance Academy, to be held in the West Indies in March.

Each country in the region currently involved in the ICC World Cricket League – Argentina, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Suriname and USA – will send two players to St Kitts for a series of training sessions run by the region's development performance officer, Andy Pick.

Brown, who has recently been working with the Essex Academy spinners at Chelmsford, will be part of the coaching team for the ten-day trip in early March and he said: 'I'll be working with the spinners on the trip to enhance their skills. It ties in well with my Norfolk commitments and in the long term it is a step in the right direction for me. In the short term I still see myself as a player and I'd like to carry on playing for the next few years.

'I know Andy Pick from when he was the England Under-19s coach and he phoned me up to see if I would be keen to work on this trip – I didn't need much persuading! I've never been to the West Indies before and I'm really looking forward to this opportunity.'

Meanwhile, Brown's club side, Horsford, have signed Cromer all-rounder Michael Warnes.

Warnes has been named player of the year in each of the last two seasons at Cromer and was recently included in Norfolk's performance squad for the coming season.

He joins his brother, opening batsman Matthew, at Horsford.