Another distraction for West Indies

West Indies arrived in New Zealand on Friday on their latest mission overseas, yet again weighed down by a burden of their own making. The consequences are likely to be the same as those that overwhelmed them twice in Australia and once in Sri Lanka last year.

In each case, the spectre of the row between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) hovered destructively over the cricket. The upshot was inevitable. An unsettled team managed only one victory in six matches in the VB Series in Australia and was knocked out after the first round. By the time Sri Lanka came around six months later, the wound had been allowed to fester to such an extent that a makeshift team, under a changed captain, was sent while the majority of dissatisfied leading players remained at home. The replacements lost both Tests and three of four ODIs-and even that was better than expected.

While the standoff between the WICB and the WIPA was finally ended, shamefully by the intervention of foreign mediators, and the team that ventured to Australia in October for the series of three Tests was the strongest available, the time was too short to expect players on opposite sides of the divide only weeks earlier to be suddenly united again. The discord was evident to everyone close to the tour and to those watching the 3-0 drubbing through their television sets on the other side of the globe. It was subsequently borne out by captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul's scarcely veiled hints ("There is not much I can do, really. There are a lot of things coming from inside") that he and coach Bennett King, the two supposed leaders, didn't see eye to eye. These were issues that, in the past, would have been aired, and cleared, at a debriefing involving captain, coach and manager before a properly constituted cricket committee of the WICB.

The problem was that, over the years, the WICB's directors paid little heed to such a committee and it duly disappeared. So Chanderpaul, King and manager Tony Howard went their separate ways after the tour while public criticism, and cynicism, mounted.

Into the vacuum stepped Chetram Singh, president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), with a proposal to establish a committee to review the work of King and his all-Australian crew and establish whether they were worth their annual US$1 million salary. Singh is the WICB's longest-serving director. As such, he would have been party to the hiring of the coaching staff 15 months earlier, the size of the salary and the conditions of employment, all of which he would have reported back to the GCB. He may not be the only one now questioning the collective decision but, in any competent organisation, such a performance review of staff is a routine, internal matter.

Not so the WICB. With much fanfare, it acceded to Singh's submission with the appointment of a special panel of renowned former players and mandated it to report back by February 15. It was seemingly unaware of the irony that the date coincides with the start of the New Zealand tour and of the impact such a pointed, widely publicised investigation could have on the coach's authority and, by extension, on the captain and the team.

So no sooner than the damaging divergence of the row over sponsorship and disputed clauses in tour contracts fades into the background than this new, wearisome issue takes its place. As it is, Chanderpaul, King and the players already have enough to occupy their attention in New Zealand.

If their opponents are palpably not as powerful as their neighbours across the Tasman Sea, they have a strong record at home, not least against West Indies teams that have ventured there over the past 55 years. The West Indies' previous visit, six years ago, was one of their most disastrous, even in the decade of decline. Defeat in both Tests and all five one-day internationals so depressed Brian Lara that he resigned the captaincy and took time off from the game to consider his future. The challenge is just as daunting this time.

The West Indies are firmly lodged at the bottom of the eight genuine international teams in both forms of the game, with a win-loss record of 1-8 in Tests and 2-15 in ODIs in the past year. The incomparable Lara, the linchpin of the batting, has declared himself unavailable for the ODIs as he seeks to extend his Test career at the age 36 and the most effective bowlers of the recent past are all missing-Corey Collymore and Pedro Collins through injury, Jermaine Lawson through the enforced change of action that has significantly cut his pace.

The only bowler available with a Test average of less than 40 is Dwayne Bravo, an ebullient young all-rounder of immense potential but, as yet, only nine Tests. Fidel Edwards (53 Test wickets at 45 runs each), Daren Powell (39 at 42) and Jerome Taylor (three at 72) are the faster men expected to provide the cutting edge. Ian Bradshaw and Rawl Lewis, both 31, are two seasoned campaigners in regional cricket who are likely to shoulder considerable responsibility. But Bradshaw is yet to play a Test and Lewis last briefly presented his leg-breaks and googlies in Test cricket seven years ago.

Until Lara joins for the Tests, the batting must revolve around Chanderpaul (91 Tests), vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan (58) and Chris Gayle (54). The others lack either experience or statistical credentials or both. It is a chance for Daren Ganga (probably the last), Runako Morton (realistically the first) and Devon Smith to show that they are Test batsmen worthy of the title and for Bravo and Denesh Ramdin to build on the reputations they have quickly forged in their brief careers.

With the World Cup 13 months away, the one-day series, against tough opponents, is the first genuine chance since the VB Series in Australia a year ago to sort out combinations and assess individuals. Another 15 such matches-at home against Zimbabwe and India at home, away against Pakistan-are available to determine a settled team, imperative in advance of the tournament. In this regard, Dwayne Smith will be keenly assessed. He has been given every opportunity but he is yet to fulfil his obvious potential to become the West Indies' Shahid Afridi, a potential match-winner with his fierce hitting, electric fielding and steady bowling. The selectors' patience may be running out.

They won't have to contend, as they did a few months back, with Australia's power-packed batting or the pace of Brett Lee, the Chinese-torture of Glenn McGrath and wizardry of Shane Warne, but Stephen Fleming leads a handy team all the same.

It was always going to be a tricky assignment. By tossing in its latest distraction, the WICB has made it even more so.