The term ‘sport’s administrative body’ is one that unfortunately appears to be increasingly linked with incompetence. I have said on several occasions that if a board of directors ran their business like FIFA and ICC run their respective sports, they would soon find themselves ousted. However, in sport the powers battles are often protracted and left unresolved.

If ever a sporting administration has been the embodiment of incompetence, it is the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). This is the body that once announced the hiring of a new coach before even discussing terms and conditions with him; the committee that invested the future of the game in the region in the hands of an oil billionaire fraudster; the commercial entity who changed their sponsors only to find that most of its marquee players were still individually contracted to a rival company. And, believe me, the public has merely seen the tip of an iceberg from a body that has lost the trust of cricketers in the Caribbean.

It has often been asked why the greats of previous generations have not been involved with West Indian cricket. The answers are several and simple. Above all, very few of them have any desire to be involved directly with a body as futile as the WICB. Furthermore, there is the story of a Test player who asked for help from a former international star during the 2000 tour of England, only to be told that the legend in question did not have WICB accreditation. This was a young player asking for the assistance of a man with close to 100 Test matches only to be told that this was not possible, just a few days before West Indies were skittled for 54 at Lord’s.

The trail of chaos that the WICB has left in its wake really does beggar belief. And this is why the cricketing public are finding it increasingly difficult to back the board in its battles with senior players. The Chris Gayle episode is becoming more and more of an embarrassment to all parties involved, and it seems unlikely to be resolved any time soon.

Both Sir Vivian Richards and Michael Holding have questioned the moral authority of the WICB to ask Gayle for an apology before they reinstate him. I agree wholeheartedly; had I displayed the incompetence of Ernest Hilaire (Hilair-ious to his critics) and Julian Hunte (best not to say what his critics call him, but there is a parody Twitter account) I would think twice before taking the moral high ground and instructing others to toe the line. As Sir Viv said, “I am not in Chris Gayle’s corner (with) most decisions he makes but I think that this whole issue is potent enough and I feel he needs some support.”

On the other hand, I have often said that playing for West Indies should be a privilege, and the likes of Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo should be concerned with representing the islands ahead of the size of their pay packets. Despite the utter shambles that is the WICB, Gayle should be doing everything in his power to ensure that he is selected for the national side, and this sadly seems to be far from being the case.

Gayle recently signed with Somerset for the Friends Life t20 in England, which starts on June 12, precisely one day after the scheduled end to the West Indies’ Test series in England. That leaves a slight chance that the English public may see the Jamaican representing West Indies on that tour, but it is the slenderest of possibilities, such is the impasse between the two parties at this point.

We often talk about pride before a fall. Well, the pride went out of West Indian cricket a long time ago, in large part to the incompetence of its administrators. There are signs of the green shoots of recovery on the field but until some serious changes are made behind the scenes, West Indian cricket will remain in the wilderness.

As part of our packed fast bowling special, AOC’s Ed Davis and Chris Knight caught up with the two Windies legends to find out what it takes to have pace like fire. Sadly, there’s only so much even we can cram into a 100-page magazine, so here are a few choice lines that you won’t find in the upcoming issue – which hits the shelves on December 29 – to enjoy…

What’s your assessment of the state of fast bowling in the modern era?
Colin Croft: I would not have gotten along well in today’s game. We had, generally, 15 players and about two managers in our room, now they have a bowling coach, a batting coach, a fielding coach, a psychologist, a masseur, 28 people in a dressing room… what is this? A concert?

Andy Roberts: I look at the fast bowlers around today and all I see are jockeys, not fast bowlers. Look at the West Indies team at the moment, it is tough to bowl fast and stay fit when you have a small stature.

Why do you think the game isn’t producing the fast bowlers who played during your era?
AR: Fast bowling is all about attitude; it’s about your state of mind. To be good at it you have to work – you have to put the time in and realise it is hard. I’m not sure the current generation understands, but you have to bowl, bowl and bowl. Everyone is getting too caught up in biomechanics and whatnot, bowling the right way, or the right way according to a textbook, but you shouldn’t change a guy’s action at all unless he’s no good. Let him be what his body want him to be.

CC: Coaching and the amount of cricket being played are fast bowling’s biggest problems at the moment. Forget the damn coaching book. Be natural, it’s as simple as that, be natural. People tell you about mixed and open-chested actions, but, hold on, if the guy is comfortable and he can bowl quickly and get wickets, that’s all you want. He’s not a frigging dentist, he’s not a doctor, he is a fast bowler – he wants to get people out.

Then there is the amount they play these days. We would only do two Test tours and two one-day tours a year. Now they do three Test tours a year and all the one-day cricket they can find, so players just don’t go home. They buy a dog and they go back after being on tour and the dog will bite them because it doesn’t remember them! It’s become so commercial, too commercial. You can’t ask a guy to work the way international cricket demands at the moment; nine, 10, 11 months a year is ridiculous if you have a family.

Who was the best batsman against fast bowling during your era?
AR: The best batsman I used to bowl to was Viv Richards. I had to bowl at him in first-class cricket and he was incredible. In Test cricket, I wouldn’t say there was one guy who stood out over the others, there was a set of good players and conditions dictated how successful they were. Sunil Gavaskar was very good, as was Ian Chappell, and I guess Greg Chappell as well.

CC: Some of them would take you on. Ian Chappell – a tremendous cricketer with a heart like stone – never backed away, Imran Khan… every team had its own stars. David Gower and Graham Gooch were good for England, and Geoffrey Boycott, of course. Not Ian Botham so much, because he was the captain and we targeted him.

New Zealand had guys like John Wright, Richard Hadlee and Bruce Edgar; those guys would really work you out. Sunil Gavaskar was brilliant for India; he would take you on, he had no fear.

How often did you look to bounce the batsman?
CC: They all got it; they all got the same treatment as far as I was concerned. It didn’t matter what number you came in, you all got the same treatment!

AR: The bouncer is part of the game. If you can’t bowl a decent one you’ve got no business calling yourself a fast bowler, and if you can’t play it you’ve got no business calling yourself a batsman. But some played the short ball better than others.

How does England’s current attack compare to the great attacks of the past?
CC: They’re doing well – reverse swing was not invented by Jimmy Anderson though. For the West Indies the guy who bowled reverse swing best was Malcolm Marshall, but all of us did it.

England are quite good, I’ve got to be honest. In 2000, when the West Indies were here, I said that Anderson, when he stops getting injured, would become their best bowler. And that’s true. If Stuart Broad focuses on his cricket he can be brilliant. Finn, for me, is not a fast bowler but he’s ok, he’s tall, he’s rangy and can get things done. I like Tim Bresnan because he pitches the ball up – he gets the ball to move.

The man who impresses me most for England is Graeme Swann because he’s a tremendous utility cricketer. He bowls well, he fields well, he catches well and he bats well. He can almost guarantee you 30 runs these days and that’s what you want your bowlers to be doing, to be getting 30 or 40 runs. If your last four batsmen give you anything between 50 to 100 runs every time, you are almost always going to win because your bowlers’ confidence goes up and they then bowl well.

For more from Andy Roberts and Colin Croft, plus a host of other speedsters past and present, check out issue 89 of All Out Cricket, in shops December 29, and make sure you check out our other interviews with some of the game’s fast bowling greats and several up and coming pacemen, such as this chat with England’s Stuart Meaker, elsewhere on this site.

India

Despite a 2-1 lead, all does not seem right in the home camp. They would have expected to be far more dominant against what is, on paper at least, a weak Windies outfit. But each of the three games have been too close for comfort and it was no surprise that the tourists managed to break their duck in Ahmedabad.

India’s problems centre around the dreadful form of their three gun batsmen – Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina. Sehwag and Gambhir recorded ducks last time out and average just 15 and five respectively in the series. Raina, ordinarily so reliable, has seven runs in three innings.

Irfan Pathan, the allrounder, has been recalled to the squad for the first time in two years and is expected to play. Umesh Yadav, however, is out having left to fly to Australia to get acclimatised for the upcoming tour. His place should go to Varun Aaron, the fast bowler who impressed against England.

West Indies

West Indies have suffered a severe blow with the news that Darren Bravo, their most impressive batsmen on the tour (99 runs in three ODI innings), is out for the remainder of the series with a hamstring injury. Bravo pulled up when on 26 in Ahmedabad and he will not recover in time. His place will go to either Adrian Barath or Kieron Powell. Still, with Ravi Rampaul, who hit 86 earlier in the contest, batting at No.9 the Windies have depth.

Venue And Conditions

There has never been a day/night international played at the Holkar Stadum in Indore. The reason for that is probably because of the heavy dew they get in this region of Madhya Pradesh. The groundsman is counting on an overdose of the chemical which attempts to negate the impact of the night-time moisture. Another preventative measure (apparently) is keeping the outfield grass long so we should not expect to see the ball scorching across the turf.

In the two ODIs played at the ground both were won by India – against England. The first innings scores on each occasion were 288 and 292 so the surface looks to be a healthy one. The last of those games was played in 2008. Expect the team that wins the toss to field first.

AOC’s Recommended Bet

Top India batsman – It would take a brave man to get involved with Sehwag, Gambhir or Raina given their dreadful records in the series, even if the latter two both have half-centuries in ODIs on this ground. The value lies with form men Rohit Sharma (257 runs) and Virat Kohli (140). Thanks to the stellar reputations of the other men in the side it is still possible to get decent value on both, but we fancy Virat to lead the way tomorrow.

For all the latest odds go to www.betfair.com

The visitors may have lost the first Test in Delhi, but they have shown signs of progress under the steady if unspectacular leadership of Darren Sammy, and could have already recorded a shock win against an Indian side that – despite the 4-0 reverse against England – is packed full of talent.

In Delhi, Shivnarine Chanderpaul – the side’s undisputed lynchpin in the continued absence of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle – top-scored in both innings, and it is unsurprising that he is the favourite amongst Betfair punters to do the same in the West Indies first innings in Kolkata. A player who seldom gifts his wicket, the gritty left-hander has been a model of consistency for more than 15 years.

The Guyanese veteran aside, the visitor’s top seven lacks experience, but in Lara ‘play-alike’ Darren Bravo, the broad shouldered Kirk Edwards and the mercurial Marlon Samuels, the Windies’ middle-order isn’t short of talent.

Samuels, who has recently returned from a two-year ban is still finding his feet and – despite possessing a great eye and power by the bucketful – it is perhaps too early to say how much 24 months out of the game has affected the 30-year-old’s game.

Bravo, by contrast, is very much on the rise, and having registered seven scores of 50 or more in 20 innings (including his first Test match century last month), he has already displayed the sort of consistency that will tempt plenty of punters to part with a few pounds.

Perhaps the best value, however, can be found by backing Bajan Kirk Edwards at 6.4. Possessing a strong, simple technique and a calm temperament the number three has an enviable average of almost 60 (albeit from just eight innings) and having missed out in Delhi, he will be keen to make his mark this time around.

Youth or experience – what do you reckon?

It seems fitting, as West Indies contest their first Test tour of India since 2002, to reflect upon the life and career of one of the true greats of our sport – one who transcends generations, and one for whom India was a significant part of his journey to greatness.

Malcolm Denzil Marshall was a boy of 20 years with a solitary first-class appearance to his name when selected to tour India in 1978/9, an ill-fated tour for a West Indian side shorn of nearly all its top players to World Series Cricket.

He made his debut in December 1978 at Bangalore, the second Test match of a series that the visitors would narrowly lose 1-0. In three matches during the tour the wiry young man from Barbados took just three wickets at an average of 88.33, but the West Indian management had seen enough to realise that they had a precious raw material with which to work. With the return of the World Series players, Marshall was unable to establish a regular place in the West Indian side but when he did play he performed respectably, picking up 55 wickets at 28.70 over 17 Test matches up to October 1983.

During this period the young firebrand learnt his trade in county cricket for Hampshire, taking a phenomenal 132 wickets in the 1982 season. Moreover, while he did not go to World Series Cricket, Marshall was indirectly a beneficiary of the tournament, as West Indies recruited an Australian physio and fitness specialist by the name of Dennis Waight in that turbulent period. Waight would go on to revolutionise the preparation and physical condition of the West Indian quicks.

ESPNcricinfo describes Marshall as “not physically imposing”, but possessing “natural balance and athleticism”. This is true although misleading to a point. The young Marshall was a thin, lean specimen, but the developed form – both through the work of Waight and the natural growth process – had a strong, broad-shouldered physique.

In October 1983, the West Indies returned to India, keen to consolidate their position as the best side in the world and desperate to avenge their defeat by the same opposition in the 1983 World Cup final – a result that sent shockwaves through the cricketing world. In the absence of Joel Garner and with the veteran Andy Roberts missing the first four matches through injury, Marshall, having served his apprenticeship, had the opportunity to take centre stage… and didn’t he just!

In his opening over of the series he silenced the Kanpur crowd by sending the stumps of Sunil Gavaskar flying back towards the pavilion. He would again dismiss the great Indian in the second innings, and although Gavaskar would have his moments in the series, this was the tour on which the legend of Malcolm Marshall was truly born.

On subcontinental pitches – usually a graveyard for bowlers of the quicker persuasion – Marshall took 33 wickets in the six-match series at an average of 18.81. A star had arrived, and the world’s batsmen would know all about it in the eight years that followed. Marshall often saved his best for England, none more so than in 1984 and 1988. Over those two tours, he took 59 wickets in nine matches at 14.91 – and that doesn’t include the 27 wickets that he took on England’s tour of West Indies in 1985.

Marshall was a thoughtful, skilled craftsman, but he had hostility in abundance. He was not afraid to use the bouncer, although the fact that he hit so many batsmen is said by opponents to have come from a low trajectory at the point of delivery, which saw the ball skid on to batsmen before they even knew it. Helmets weren’t always enough. Just ask Andy Lloyd, whose Test career was ended inside an hour, and Mike Gatting, who had his nose rearranged.

But it was his artistry that shone as his career developed, as he utilised the leg-cutter and in-swinger to devastating effect. During the 1988 tour of England he had lost little of his pace, and this combination of late movement at will, and at speed, was devastating. He took 35 wickets at 12.65 in that series and was utterly unplayable. I recall being at Old Trafford as he took a Test-best 7-22, and there was no batsman in the world who would have laid a bat on him that morning as he made the ball not just talk, but sing.

In his latter years it was this control and movement, still at a brisk if not express pace, which cemented his reputation as the complete fast bowler and he remained the key cog in the West Indian attack to the end of his career in 1991. Marshall was the comprehensive package. On quick pitches he would hit the deck hard and extract fearsome bounce and pace in the manner of an Andy Roberts, whilst in more seam-friendly conditions he was as masterful as the great Sir Richard Hadlee in the subtle arts of swing and seam bowling. He had a heart as big as a lion and would run in all day long – for his bravery, just cast your mind back to Headingley in 1984, when he batted one-handed after sustaining a double fracture of the left thumb to help Larry Gomes to his century before returning figures of 7-53.

My memories of Malcolm, however, are not confined to what most saw on the field, but of the man I grew to love equally off it. It was a tragic loss when he lost his battle against colon cancer on November 4, 1999, aged just 41. In those 41 years, however, he left a legacy bigger than most could manage in multiple lifetimes, doing so with a smile (generally!) and in a style that won admirers globally. Personally, I lost a friend, mentor and hero, and my tears were shared across the wider cricketing community where he was loved by so many.

At the time of writing the West Indies look well placed, weather permitting, to take the spoils in the second Test against Bangladesh and claim a 1-0 series victory. It is a far cry from last weekend’s weather-affected encounter in which the hosts had much the better of an inevitable draw, with the best part of two days lost to inclement conditions.

It is another glaring example of the inconsistency shown by the men from the Caribbean in recent times, but the simple fact of the matter is that, should they finish the job, it will be a vital victory for a side that last won a Test match on foreign soil in December 2007 (against South Africa in Port Elizabeth) and have gone some eight years without winning a series on their travels – and that against a Zimbabwe side rebuilding after the 2003 World Cup against the backdrop of political conflict. Such statistics are unacceptable by any standards, even those set by the West Indies in the barren years since they set the benchmark for all to follow.

The first three days of the Mirpur Test provided a rare glimmer of hope for the West Indies with Kirk Edwards confirming the talent he displayed earlier this summer with a debut century against India, by scoring another in the first innings in Mirpur and following that up with a well compiled 86 in the second dig. The Bajan has shown patience and good shot selection here as he did in that knock against India, which bodes well for the future. The challenge for him will be to maintain this, particularly with a tougher challenge ahead on Indian soil. The West Indian public will also have to show patience with him and remember that he is a young man with only 28 first-class appearances under his belt.

In contrast, the much-vaunted Darren Bravo has rather flattered to deceive given his immense promise, without an international century to his name… until this match. It has long been evident that the young left-hander is incredibly gifted, but he has shown a lack of discipline and patience on several occasions prior to his maiden ton in Mirpur.

He has, however, worked hard at his game and his short stint with Nottinghamshire at the end of the county season has clearly prepared him very well for the winter ahead. Like Edwards, he will need to work hard to maintain the consistency if he is to do justice to his talent, but the relief and joy was palpable as he finally reached that milestone.

If Bravo and Edwards are the faces of the future, then their namesakes represent several of the issues that have dogged West Indian cricket over the last decade. Fidel Edwards (no relation to Kirk) and Dwayne Bravo (the elder half-brother of Darren) are both blessed with great talent but their careers have been punctuated by injury and inconsistency.

Edwards’ record of 143 wickets in eight years over 47 Test matches is simply not good enough for a bowler of his natural athleticism and pace. Ottis Gibson proved himself to be a very good bowling coach during his stint with England and the early signs of his impact on Edwards, who at 29 is not beyond redemption by any means, are positive. He bowled well against India and his five-wicket haul in the first innings in Mirpur will give hope to those who know what he is capable of.

Many share the same belief in Bravo Snr who, when he made his debut in 2004, was feted as the great hope of West Indian cricket, the first natural allrounder in a generation. However, a batting average of 31.42 (including three centuries) and a return of 86 wickets at an average of 39.83 is a poor record for a player of such all-round talent. Being named captain of the West Indies A team to host Bangladesh was seen by some as a return to the fold; however, I cannot help but see it as a massive fall from grace for someone who was meant to represent the future of West Indian cricket.

Both have been blighted by injury, inconsistency in selection and continued changes of management. However, like so many of the recent era, they have simply failed to fulfil their talent. Because it is not talent that has been lacking in West Indian cricket; indeed, they’ve had talented cricketers that other nations would have envied. However, if there were a league table for the side that has most wasted its ability the West Indies would be out of sight with a few games in hand. It has to stop now, and a series victory over Bangladesh would represent the right time and the right place to start the process.

“This is a contest that they simply cannot afford to lose” – one of the more frequently used sporting clichés of the modern cricketing scribe. However, it is often true, and never more so than for the West Indies in their ongoing tour of Bangladesh.

Some would claim that it is a Test series Darren Sammy’s side cannot win and can only lose. If they win, well, it’s only Bangladesh, and should they lose it will be the nadir of the seemingly endless decline of West Indian cricket. That said, every recovery has to start somewhere and it should be remembered that the West Indies went six years between 1967 and 1973 without winning a series. That side never plunged the depths of the current team and players of the class of Lloyd, Kallicharan, Rowe and Roberts established themselves as world-class players in that period, setting the path for the golden period over the next two decades, but a win over the Tigers on their home patch would at least represent a step in the right direction.

It is 16 years since Australia defeated the West Indies in the Caribbean and dethroned them at the top of the world rankings. Despite the longevity of Walsh and Ambrose, the record-breaking feats of Brian Lara, the endurance of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the explosive talent of Chris Gayle, since that time they have stumbled from one disaster to the next as a once proud region has been brought to its knees.

This is a question that has continued to puzzle cricketing pundits and exasperate West Indian supporters. How could a team with so much talent so frequently be humbled and embarrassed? Theories have abounded and the WICB has gone through more coaches than a National Express depot, not to mention advisors, psychologists and doctors. They still haven’t found the formula and the gap between the West Indies and the world’s best has continued to widen.

This has been exacerbated by the age-old concern of politics. It’s so easy to forget and to underestimate the fact that this is not a group of counties or provinces brought together – which is in itself by no means easy – but a group of countries each with their own identity, heritage, currency… and agenda.

I have never shied away from criticising players who have represented the West Indies in recent times. Too often they have underperformed, and quite frankly brought shame on themselves, their individual nations and the Caribbean collectively. More pointedly, they have often given the impression that they don’t care and demonstrated a lack of desire and maturity.

Marlon Samuels typifies this more than most, a series of reckless decisions costing him his wicket, before nearly costing him his career. It can only be hoped – and the signs are positive given his matchwinning innings in the second ODI in Mirpur – that his ban for ‘discussions’ with bookmakers has made him a more determined and considered individual. His performances for Jamaica and the West Indies bode well, but he must do it on a consistent basis.

Lendl Simmons – who has performed strongly in a three-match ODI series which saw West Indies take a decisive 2-0 lead before being humiliated in the final match of the series in Chittagong – has not had his temperament called into question so much as his technique. He is a natural and stylish athlete, but even a graceful poise at the crease could not negate the flaw he had developed of playing across his front pad. This seems to have been rectified; it should have happened much sooner, but the fact that it has is a credit to him and the coaching staff around him.

Like Samuels, Simmons has a long way to go before he is the finished article, but both of these men have the natural ability to play a significant role in any rebuilding process for the West Indies. Simmons, 26, and Samuels, 30, are now elder statesmen of the side and must take on that responsibility. And, with the youthful talent of Darren Bravo and Adrian Barath added into the mix, the West Indies could now have the beginnings of a recipe for making big first innings scores and imposing themselves on Test matches, as opposed to constantly having to play catch-up.

Bangladesh have been increasingly proficient at home, but this is a Test series that the West Indies can and must win. There is no need to look any further ahead at this time. India in November will wait for now.

In this video interview, Ambrose give his forthright opinions at the Home of Cricket on the state of the game in the West Indies.

For more sports interviews head to www.sportsvibe.co.uk

Caribbean scribes such as myself have had scarce opportunity to report on positive performances from West Indies in recent times but there have been moments to warm the soul in Twenty20 cricket, particularly against England – with West Indies having triumphed in four of the five clashes between the sides coming into the most recent series.

Such has been the inconsistency of West Indian cricket in recent years that there is a habit of receiving every victory as the dawn of a glorious new era but the chastening reality of Sunday’s victory over England in the second of the two T20 internationals is that it was an isolated win in a series which should never have been scheduled in the first place.

That said, in a late September chill, two patchwork sides put together some entertaining cricket over the weekend, even if the quality was at times lacking. There was certainly no shortage of commitment, although the West Indies looked shell-shocked and understandably rusty during their comprehensive defeat in Friday’s opening stanza. England will have some concerns, especially surrounding their ability to put scores together on slow, worn pitches. The truth is that most international sides find it difficult in such conditions and England can be relatively optimistic about their prospects of defending their crown in next year’s ICC World Twenty20.

From a West Indian perspective, these games have raised as many questions as they have provided answers. The first major issue remains the captaincy and whether Darren Sammy warrants a place in their strongest side. Sammy is not the most aesthetically pleasing of cricketers and his statistics don’t stand up to scrutiny, but the St Lucian’s attitude and commitment has put so many of the prima donnas and underachievers of West Indian cricket to shame. He consistently speaks of giving everything when out on the field and several players in the recent history of the islands would do well to learn from his example. He does not pick and choose when to play for West Indies and he wears the cap with pride. He might not be a world-beater but playing for his country is clearly more important to him than the number of zeros in his bank account.

The biggest question moving forward is whether the selectors continue to persevere with those that are talented but have been consistently inconsistent in both performance and application, or do they allow coach Ottis Gibson and Sammy to start with clean slate and blood a group of youngsters – some of whom have displayed real talent – but accept that results will be patchy at best in the coming years. After all, results can’t be much worse than they have been in recent years and it would be much more palatable watching a young side showing commitment but falling short as opposed to highly paid ‘superstars’ with their hands in their pockets and lacking the stomach for a fight.

Whichever route they take, the selectors must show consistency, and that may well mean persisting with some of these youngsters even when the likes of Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo decide that they want to play for their country. In the case of Bravo it should be said that he has been available for selection on most occasions but the selectors seem to have grave concerns over his knees in particular, and his fitness in general.

There are only so many times that the selectors can continue going back to the same players who have continually let them and the West Indian public down. The time has come when they have to decide on the futures of players like Dinesh Ramdin, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, and others whose contributions have continued to do little justice to their talents, whether due to form or injury. The same applies to Gayle and Pollard, who need to prove that they should be there instead of youngsters who want to be. The road will be long and hard for West Indies, but talents like Adrian Barath, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell and Devendra Bishoo at least offer hope. It should be exciting to watch but, then again, it always is with West Indies.

There has been a long line of great left-handers produced by the West Indies over the years, from Sir Garfield Sobers and Clive Lloyd, through Alvin Kallicharran and Roy Fredericks, to the modern day icon, Brian Lara. And it is another southpaw that has provided the backbone to West Indian cricket in recent years, the diminutive Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Chanderpaul was on display for Warwickshire during their vital County Championship victory over Nottinghamshire – who were fielding another West Indian left-hander in the form of Darren Bravo, one of the leading lights for the future of cricket in the Caribbean.

At the age of 37, Chanderpaul is the venerable old man of West Indian cricket, with a Test career that has spanned 17 years and a reputation as a dogged, committed accumulator who has so often been the last bastion between survival and obliteration for the West Indies. Bravo, 22, is yet to register an international century but is seen as the great hope, albeit in a region starved of success in recent times. He also reminds the West Indian public of the great Lara; batting like him, walking like him, and talking like him. They are even related – Bravo’s mother is the sister of Lara’s late father.

Everything that the young Bravo does, through to the smallest mannerisms, is a reflection of his hero Lara. Watching him score a stylish 70 at Edgbaston last week it was immediately clear he is a talented player; his technique is fairly straightforward – well, it is that of Lara – and he is a stylish strokemaker with nimble footwork against the spinners and the ability to accumulate runs on both sides of the wicket.

Lara’s technique was not perfect, very few are, but he possessed a magnificent eye and an ability to play the ball later than almost anyone to have played the game. This meant that even when caught out of position he was able to recover and infuriate opposition captains by manoeuvring the ball seemingly at will. But Lara was a unique phenomenon and Bravo must ensure he has the correct technique and attitude in place to make his own way in the game.

With six half-centuries in his first eight Tests the early signs are promising but at the risk of appearing a little harsh he needs to start converting those fifties if he is going to come even close to fulfilling the expectations that the West Indian public have of him. They too, however, would do well to remember that his name is Darren Michael Bravo, and not Brian Charles Lara.

Chanderpaul, meanwhile, continues to churn out score after score. There was a time when it was felt that he too was not doing justice to his talent and failing to convert enough of his starts into big scores. However, 23 Test centuries later, that criticism has been well and truly laid to rest.

His stint with Warwickshire has seen him hit three tons in five first-class games at the time of writing, and it has helped propel the Edgbaston side into pole position in the Championship race. Chanderpaul may not be as easy on the eye as Bravo’s idol Lara, but his career is a great example and lesson of the work and dedication required to be successful at the highest level. If Bravo is to create his own mark on the game he will have to demonstrate the substance to match his evident style, and in that category Chanderpaul may well be the greatest example of them all.

Sport has changed, and the power base has shifted considerably from the administrators to the players in recent times. Whilst some would argue that this was not a day too soon, I can’t help but feel we’re heading down a path of destruction.

It is all too easy to be romantic when we look back at a bygone era. The WICBC, as it was then called, has a long history of mistreating its players. Just flick through the autobiography of any of the West Indian greats for proof of that.

Back then, of course, there was no such thing as WIPA and the players were held to ransom; the authorities knowing that the players had no choice but to accept the derisory packages on offer. This was the forerunner to Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, but despite player’s receiving more substantial pay packets, it was still the boards that called the shots during the 80s in international cricket.

It was only in the 90s that money was ploughed into cricket on a global scale, mainly by television companies. In the 20-year period since, the landscape of cricket has changed forever, and it is a sport now run by the players and their associations. The problem in the Caribbean is that West Indian players are still poor relations to most of their international peers, with the WICB a startling example of everything that an administrative body should strive not to be. It lacks consistency, cohesion, accountability and leadership, and has for several years been at loggerheads with the WIPA. Can anyone forget the farcical transition of sponsorship from Cable and Wireless to Digicel?

If it has not been one senior player at odds with the board, it has been another, this all during an era where the West Indies have consistently been an embarrassment on the field. Currently the WIPA are engaged in a lawsuit with the WICB for circa £12 million. They are citing restraint of trade, due to the WICB’s refusal to grant unconditional No Objection Certificates to their players.

Essentially, a No Objection Certificate would give the players the right to choose where and when they represent their country. This is of course very topical given that West Indian players have been globetrotting to play in various lucrative T20 competitions. Looking at the West Indies squad for the T20 internationals in England at the end of the month, it could be argued that the WICB are already in compliance, with the names of Chris Gayle, the Bravo brothers, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul and Lendl Simmons just a few of those missing.

The ludicrous nature of this scenario is not lost on many. The WICB have themselves been guilty of selling out to the dollar of T20; this is why they have to play these two ridiculously scheduled matches in England as fallout from the Stanford deal which went so horribly awry when the great new benefactor of West Indian cricket was exposed as being nothing other than a fraud and a criminal.

Whilst it is clear that the WICB don’t have the financial riches of other member bodies, one has to wonder how much they should and could have learnt from the central contracts that have so benefited the more successful nations in the modern game.

Even withstanding that option, there have been occasions on which to engage the players. However, the board’s reputation is at such a low ebb with the Caribbean cricketing public, the players can get away with fighting the board to the detriment of the game in the region, because the public sympathises with them.

I would perhaps have more sympathy with the players if they showed even the merest morsel of pride and professionalism when they take to the field for West Indies. These same players who shine as world stars in the big money competitions continue to embarrass and shame the West Indian cricketing public as soon as they play for their country.

However, it is essential that WIPA do not win this court case – if they do, how long will it be before cricket administrators across the globe are held to ransom? But, that said, it is time for the WICB to clean up its act once and for all.

It is a double-edged sword, and one which again illustrates the depths to which this once mighty group of islands have sunk. Time will tell, but the High Court of Trinidad may be the most significant playing field that West Indian cricket has seen in recent years.

There has certainly been no shortage of subject matter for cricketing scribes during the past week, one in which a nation’s cricket team has put a smile back on the faces of many against the backdrop of the most serious socio-political crisis known to a generation.

I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, a time when such uprisings were not unusual. However, it was a time when, in a cricketing sense, the Caribbean immigrant population was able to comfort itself with the phrase: “You invented it, but we play it better”. The more creative would of course substitute ‘we’ with ‘WI’.

The last decade has rendered that particular phrase obsolete due to the declining standard of West Indian cricket, but we could at least comfort ourselves in the knowledge that at least someone was better than England, whomever that may be! That was, of course, until Saturday afternoon at around 3pm.

As a youth I saw some fine English cricketers, a group which included Sir Ian Botham, David Gower and Graham Gooch, amongst others, all bonafide world-class performers. However, that side was up against arguably the greatest cricket team of them all, in the shape of Clive Lloyd’s West Indies. As though that wasn’t enough, the next generation of Englishmen found themselves in direct competition with the great Australian sides that were, again, among the very best the world has ever seen.

About a year ago I wrote that we were unlikely to see a single team dominate in the way that we previously had and, moreover, that cricket would be a better spectacle at international level for having two or three sides capable of competing for the top spot. Some 12 months on, I am beginning to wonder if I may have been slightly hasty in that supposition. Make no mistake, this England group has not only the skill, but also the mindset and mentality to dominate Test cricket for years to come.

There are echoes of the way that the great West Indian side came to prominence. A crushing 5-1 defeat at the hands of Australia in 1975/6 led Clive Lloyd to review his side’s approach. Likewise, the 2006/7 Ashes debacle was followed by a clinical review which has played a significant part in galvanising this England unit.

That said, I go back to a comment that Justin Langer made in the aftermath of this winter’s Ashes series in reference to the previous Ashes tour: “All the probing in the world couldn’t deny one very obvious factor. In 2006/07 England had come up against a very strong, very well prepared and very focused Australian cricket team.”

It is so very true and in sport there is a tendency to overcomplicate simple matters with complex theory. Yet simplicity lies in the fact that the team with the best players usually wins. And just like West Indies and Australia before them, England now have the best players. They are also the best prepared players, and the ECB has to be given credit for its role in that. They overcame initial scepticism about central contracts, stood firm to their beliefs, and have additionally invested in world class-facilities, coaches and technology. In every way, England are the benchmark for others to now match.

In contrast, the BCCI and several leading Indian players need to look hard in the mirror. They were woefully underprepared for this series and, in truth, many of them looked ready to board their flight home during the Edgbaston Test. They have to ask themselves whether the rupees of the IPL and the sponsorship revenue of ODIs is as important as being the best Test side in the world. They have been woeful on this tour, and while much of that can be accredited to England’s brilliance, they must take a portion of blame.

For now, England fans can be safe in the knowledge that not only did they invent the game, but they also play it better. I was fortunate to spend a few minutes with Dave Peacock on Saturday afternoon. Dave is the co-founder of the Barmy Army and, whatever your views on them, this is a man who, for his love of the game, has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds following England across the globe, developing a brand now synonymous with the national side abroad. He has witnessed the sublime and the ridiculous and had every right to revel in supporting the world’s greatest side on Saturday. England have laid down the gauntlet and it will be compelling viewing to see which of their rivals will best take up the challenge of knocking them from their perch.

On a final note, I could not write this week without mention of Neal Abberley, who died last Monday at the age of 67. A throwback to the days of the one club man, ‘Abbers’ served Warwickshire County Cricket Club for close to 50 years as a coach and player. As a coach, I played under his tutelage for several years within the Warwickshire youth system. He was a traditionalist and insisted on discipline, but you always knew that praise was merited when it came. He will be sorely missed by many, and my thoughts are with Christine, Colette and Russell.

Kumar Sangakkara’s almost Churchillian MCC Spirit of Cricket lecture at Lord’s, where he related the history of Sri Lanka and how cricket slipped “through the crack in our anti-western defences and has now become the most precious heirloom of our British Colonial inheritance”, was a truly fascinating one.

But not everyone enjoyed the lecture. Sri Lankan sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage ordered a probe after Sangakkara was particularly scathing about political interference from “partisan cronies” that has led to “corruption and wanton waste of cricket board finances and resources”.

This would appear to be the real reason why Sangakkara resigned the captaincy so abruptly after the World Cup and why he was such a reluctant leader when Dilshan was ruled out of the third Test at The Rose Bowl.

Sadly, the travails of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board – the postponement by a year of the Sri Lankan Premier League is another indicator of their woes – are shared by a growing number of their counterparts worldwide

Chris Gayle’s increasingly fraught confrontation with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) seems to have reached the point of no return with his recent public statement. West Indies cricket can ill afford to be at war with its star batsman but have effectively exiled him from their struggling team. Indeed, the pressure on WICB has become so great that WICB Exposé – a blog purporting to leak classified information from within the WICB itself – has made a number of shocking revelations in recent months. Anyone with an interest in WI cricket and a couple of hours to spare would do well to pay WICB Exposé a visit. It raises some interesting questions.

The extent of the problems in Sri Lanka and with the WICB has taken the spotlight somewhat off the Pakistan Cricket Board and its chairman Ijaz Butt. Since he took over in 2008, the PCB has lurched from crisis to crisis and seems to have failed in its primary role – that being supporting Pakistani cricket. The spot-fixing scandal and the fact that Pakistan have been unable to play at home since the Lahore attack of 2009 have hardly helped but Butt has at times appeared to make the situation worse, interfering and making bizarre public statements.

Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. Cricket Australia was once held up as the shining beacon for all cricket boards to aspire. They had an all-conquering side, a domestic set-up envied by all and an infrastructure that suggested the future was assured. Much has changed though and the situation Down Under is now far less optimistic.

Even taking into account the inevitable dip that was going to follow the retirement of legends like Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist, the decline has been alarming. This was highlighted in the Ashes series – first with the naming of a 17-man squad at the behest of Cricket Australia’s own marketing department and then a number of interesting selections, such as Xavier Doherty. The recent dropping of Simon Katich, a man who averaged 47 in the last two years, has raised more questions about the role of Andrew Hilditch, Australia’s Chairman of Selectors – a man appointed by Cricket Australia.

It’s not just the national team either, with the strange (and now mercifully aborted) experiment with split innings in domestic one-day matches and the organisation being increasingly in thrall to Twenty20. Even worse could follow with the new franchise Big Bash League, something that Gideon Haigh believes could be disastrous for the future of Australian cricket.

The Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI), while not perceived by many as a paragon of virtue, is in rude health by comparison. Its team are the top ranked Test side and World Cup holders and the IPL effectively remains a licence to print money. However, allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest with regards to ownership of the IPL franchises in particular continue to abound.

And what of the ECB? Well, unfortunate liaisons with shady characters like Allen Stanford aside, it seems to be performing effectively, although that’s always easier when the team is on a high. The England team are thriving and the infrastructure in place for future player development seems relatively sound. There are concerns of course: the packed domestic fixture schedule, the absence of 50 over cricket at county level, financial problems in maintaining 18 counties and the issues surrounding the process of awarding international matches to grounds, but compared to other international board the ECB certainly stands up well to scrutiny.

With problems affecting most boards across the globe, Sangakkara hit the nail on the head when he said that a solution could be the ICC “taking a stand to suspend member boards with any direct detrimental political interference and allegations of corruption and mismanagement. This will negate the ability to field representative teams or receive funding and other accompanying benefits from the ICC”.

The recent ICC Conference suggested that something along these lines will be implemented in the coming years. It cannot come too soon for the likes of Sangakkara and Gayle.

David Green is the warped mind behind The Reverse Sweep cricket blog and regards Douglas Jardine as his ultimate cricket hero. You can follow David on Twitter @TheReverseSweep