Walking wounded

	Chris Gayle feels the heat during the third Test against Australia © AFP

There is a rumour going around that the rash of boundary-related injuries in the West Indies team has something to do with a particular sponsor keen on gaining as much mileage as possible from its recent association with regional cricket.

Although not even the barest shred of evidence has been unearthed incriminating the people associated with the 'Know Your Boundaries' campaign and its attendant boundary advertising, conspiracy theorists - of which there are about six million in these parts - are wondering aloud if there is a considerable degree of duplicity involving players who are only too eager to take a fall for the cause of greater revenue

In any event, West Indies cricketers now seem to get injured as a matter of course, so if they can get richer for what happens normally in a day's play, then there's no big thing with that. So, as ludicrous as it sounds, everyone should keep an eye on Caribbean fielders dashing towards the boundary today when West Indies and Australia meet in the second match of their five-match series at the Queen's Park Stadium in Grenada.

Ramnaresh Sarwan started the ball rolling when he tumbled awkwardly on the opening day of the second Test against England in Headingley last year. He played no further part in the match, continues to have a weak throw from anywhere, and is now nursing a groin strain that he picked up on the opening day of the third Test against Australia in Bridgetown two weeks ago.

The same match also claimed fellow Guyanese Sewnarine Chattergoon, who wrenched his left ankle badly at the start of Australia's second innings, while Xavier Marshall will have an MRI scan on his damaged shoulder following a diving effort during the first ODI in St Vincent.

It's getting to the stage where management should mandate that West Indians return to their previous unwritten policy of only diving when there is a swimming pool full of bikini-clad babes in front of them.

All jokes aside, these lingering and increasing injury concerns - with captain Chris Gayle and his ten-week-old groin strain as the current poster boy of the walking, or limping, wounded - must again raise questions over fitness, an issue that is so fundamental to any sport that it should not be a talking point at the elite, professional level.

This is not to say that injuries can never happen. It is, by the very nature of sport, an occupational hazard, and every so often, a player or a team seems to go through a period when they are blighted by a rash of ailments.

Once in a while is understandable. When it happens every match, every series and every tour, the lengthening pattern leads you to the inescapable conclusion that most contemporary West Indian cricketers don't work hard enough on their fitness.

Of course, we can expect any number of qualified persons, or at least people in management or with some stake, financial or otherwise, to suggest that this is just one of those things and we shouldn't come down on the players too hard because they are putting in all the requisite effort at practice and training.

Well, this is one case where the evidence is clear and cannot be shrouded by all sorts of fancy explanations and interpretations, especially as most of our opponents, playing in the same conditions as us, don't seem to suffer as frequently or as seriously as we do.

And, of course, this has been one of the many recurring decimals in our game and reinforces just how monumental the task is for West Indies to get anywhere close to the top-three in world cricket in the foreseeable future, to say nothing of the board's strategic plan that envisions achieving that objective by 2012.

Getting back to a competitive level with the best in the world is taking such a frustratingly long time, and even if recent series in South Africa and at home to Sri Lanka and now Australia have offered considerable encouragement, the continuing handicap of injuries emphasises just how much work needs to be done on and off the field, and in the mind, before there is any suggestion of a return to the glory days.

West Indies' 84-run loss in the first ODI is not by itself a major setback in the quest to effect the turnaround that everyone has been waiting for. It is a combination of factors, relating as much to temperament, attitude and work-ethic as raw talent, which explains just why all of the optimistic forecasts about being ranked among the big boys again very soon is on the same level as politicians' promises on the eve of an election.

For the last two months, we have been carrying on with a virtual non-playing captain and a non-fielding vice-captain. Now, the most senior player and most successful batsman by far has missed the last two matches, while an exciting young prospect could miss the rest of the series. Forget 'Know Your Boundaries' and consider instead 'Know Your Body.'