On Sunday the ICC's five regional development managers and their staff will converge at headquarters in Dubai to begin work on a long-term plan with lofty ambitions: for cricket to eventually become the world's favourite sport.

More relevant in the short term, it will be the first time they meet under the man expected to be at the forefront of the game's global expansion. William Glenwright took over as the new head of global development late last year, replacing Tim Anderson, who stepped down in June after 16 years with the ICC and six in charge of the game's development.

Anderson left behind a substantial legacy of growth, and Glenwright arrived with impressive credentials from the world of rugby, where he was an important administrator in the growth of the sport in non-traditional regions, such as Japan.

The five-day meeting will involve only ICC staff and not any member board representatives. The idea, according to Glenwright, is to start a process that culminates with a three-year growth plan to be launched at this year's AGM in June.

Any plans will have to be approved by the ICC's development committee - the first minor speed bump ahead of an ICC board meeting in February is that the committee currently has no head: recently deposed BCCI president Anurag Thakur was heading it. Along the way, there will be regular consultation with member boards, before the board has the opportunity to approve it at the AGM.

One of Glenwright's primary aims this week is to develop greater coherence within the organisation.

"Because for quite a while ICC's development activity was run separately to other ICC businesses, one of the things we're very keen to do is to develop a more integrated approach to development," Glenwright told ESPNcricinfo. "One of the things I've learnt in my first couple of months, outside of established cricket countries - and this is true of all sport - the biggest challenge you have in growing the game and getting more people to play, is to actually build the awareness of the game in the first place.

"In order to do that, we need to work more closely with our experts - and that's our broadcast department, our media department. We need to work in a more integrated fashion with them to build that awareness."

That desire to involve more internal departments is something that has been noted within the organisation. In one sense, such meetings are routine but Glenwright's push to rope-in departments such as broadcast, commercial and cricket operations is being seen as a fresh injection of energy to the cause.

Glenwright's experience in taking rugby to newer regions was a major factor in his appointment. It is thought that his knowledge of the Chinese market - where rugby has enjoyed swift recent growth - will be especially helpful because it is a country the ICC is keen to expand cricket in.

But Glenwright sees himself as a passionate "cricket fan", who has played the game through school and university and followed the progress of the game and the work of the ICC from afar.

"I had a baseline understanding of what the ICC was doing, and also the challenges the game and the administration was facing," he said. "I did come in with my eyes wide open. What I've found from my first two months is that there is a genuine appetite at the board level and the administration to propel cricket on a new growth trajectory. That is reflected in the governance changes that are currently being considered by the board. It is certainly reflected in the funding models that are being examined."

One of the most pressing issues he will need to address is squaring the desire to grow and be the world's favourite sport with the reality of a contracting showpiece event - the 10-team 50-over World Cup in 2019. Glenwright said the debate around the number of teams was "a valid discussion and concern".

"As we've seen from recent developments at the Football World Cup, regardless of the size of your tournament, more countries always want to be a part of it," he said. "One of the things I've noticed and admire is that the pathway to the Cricket World Cup, irrespective of the size, is such that every member federation has the opportunity to participate in a qualification process and furthermore, the ICC heavily subsidises the pathway. That is very rare among international federations.

"The narrative tends to be around the number of teams competing and I get that, that's fair enough. That is a valid discussion and concern, but at the same time, there's no good having a large World Cup if most of your member federations can't afford to participate in the qualification process. What cricket has done very well is remove as many of those barriers as possible."