Are West Indies really that bad?

You mean to say we really that bad?

No, not the capitulation in Wellington on Wednesday. That's commonplace, unless you happen to be one of those gullible types who feels that the long-awaited turning of the corner re-starts with every infrequent victory. What really emphasises how scant the regard is for West Indies as a cricketing force is the bacchanal that has engulfed the English less than two weeks before they are due to arrive in the Caribbean for a series of four Tests, two Twenty20 matches and five one-day internationals.

Let's face it. You think the England and Wales Cricket Board would not have done everything possible to avoid the resignation of their star-boy captain and the sacking of the head coach so close to the start of a campaign, if that campaign was against Australia? Indeed, a measure of the widespread disregard for West Indies is that the English media are now paralysed with fear that hopes of regaining the Ashes at the height of their summer have been irreparably damaged.

Whether or not team harmony under Andrew Strauss will be compromised, especially with a sulking Kevin Pietersen in the dressing room and knowing full well that he did not have the backing of other prominent players in his showdown with coach Peter Moores, hardly seems to be an issue in relation to the imminent tour of the West Indies and the reciprocal series of two Tests and three ODI's in England in May.

Of course, this undercurrent of complacency is understandable, given recent history which shows England emerging victorious in the last four Test series, winning 13 of 16 matches in that period since Jimmy Adams' side started the 2000 tour with an innings triumph inside three days in Birmingham , the last occasion West Indies actually won a Test match against England.

During that time, there have been 11 completed West Indies totals of under 200, including 54 at Lord's and 61 at Headingley during that 2000 series, not forgetting of course the lowest of the low - 47 - at Sabina Park and 94 in front of a packed Kensington Oval dominated by celebrating Brits in 2004. And with the exception of the two-wicket nail-biter at Lord's nine years ago and falling 61 runs short of a sky-high target of 455 at Old Trafford in 2007, England have generally prevailed by more than a mile-and-a-half in their recent meetings, giving their fans more than enough cause to tay-lay-lay, whether it is in the Caribbean sunshine on in the bitter cold of a reluctant English summer.

So the categorisation of the upcoming six Tests between two long-established cricketing foes as nothing more than a warm-up for the real thing when the Australians arrive in England is understandable, although extremely humbling for greying West Indians who looked forward to every duel with the former colonial superpower as a chance to ramajay in the stands while our champions were letting the hapless English have it full blast on the field.

Will the script revert in 2009 to anything like those glory days? Highly unlikely, although with the expansion of the regional first-class competition and the decision not to interrupt the tournament when the West Indies and England are locking horns, the home captain and coach will at least be without the readymade excuse of players not having enough match practice.

Neither can they repeat the regular lament about those on the fringe of selection being unable to stake a claim as these players will now be in action at the same time for their respective territories. No-one is suggesting that the standard will lift significantly by having continuous cricket for the next 14 weeks, but at least the contenders will be seeing regular action and cannot complain about being rusty.

Let's hope Chris Gayle and John Dyson, assuming they avoid a copycat fate of their English counterparts, don't go the other way by trying to excuse the latest disappointing performance as a consequence of players being overworked. They may still try, but someone should remind them from the very outset that they can't have it both ways.

So starting today, there's even more of an incentive for regional cricketers to seek to deliver consistently during the longest season here since 1997, knowing that if they can score significant runs and take enough wickets at the same time that the incumbents are struggling, there's an even greater chance of breaking into or reclaiming a spot in the West Indies squad.

None of this is intended to diminish the significance of the regional competition in its own right, especially with Trinidad and Tobago needing to convert all this talk about being the most successful team in the West Indies by claiming the title that really matters. Daren Ganga's squad bowl-off the campaign in Barbados this morning, renewing a rivalry that may be a pale shadow of the high-intensity confrontations of years past, but still means a lot as a contest of traditional and bitter rivals.

Insularity isn't always a bad thing, especially if the desire to thrash the flying fish fellows and then hammer the dancehall denizens of champions Jamaica at home next weekend benefits our terrific Trickydadians, while at the same time igniting a competitive spark that redounds to the benefit of a West Indies team that is right now regarded by the English as nothing more than the equivalent of a triangle file, good for sharpening-up in advance of the real competition coming to London town.