Just as there seems no direction remaining but up for the West Indies, they once again shock us all with the sorry state of their new low. On a pitch that possessed no demons, the hapless 11 hot air balloons deflated spontaneously without cause. The false optimism being perpetrated by former senior players such as Sir Vivian Richards, who with out any evidence, declared this as the series the West Indies could win, also revealed itself as being nothing more than mere baseless hype.
Indeed, in the 2007 World Cup series of warm-up matches in which teams played others outside their group, only Bermuda, when playing England, scored less than the West Indies did. The embarassment occurred at Trelawney Stadium Jamaica ,2 days before the opening ceremony for the prestigious series being played in the region for the first time.
Their paltry 85 runs came in the manner outlined below:
| CH Gayle | 6 | ||
| S Chanderpaul | 6 | ||
| RR Sarwan | 13 | ||
 | BC Lara | 22 | |
| DJ Bravo | 0 | ||
| KA Pollard | 2 | ||
 | D Ramdin | 3 | |
| MN Samuels | 0 | ||
| LMP Simmons | 9 | ||
| DR Smith | 13 | ||
| JE Taylor | 0 | ||
| Extras | 11 | ||
| Total | 85 |
Can the West Indies win the series? Of course anything is possible, but evidence suggests this will be the series that cements the decline of West Indies cricket and washes the distant memories of grandeur out to sea.
Four years have passed since 2003 when a Canadian - yes Canadian batsman scored the fastest world cup hundred against the West Indies team (see the sixes on video), and it has been eleven years since the 500-1 odds against Kenyans stunned the world at the expense of the struggling youngsters and here we are in 2007 on home soil observing yet another
pathetic performance.
The question must be asked, what next for Windies?
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