Caught in action - Gordon Brooks

We all enjoy a nip of nostalgia as a warming antidote to a present chill. So with West Indies cricket experiencing something of a cold front, it is not a bad time for Gordon Brooks to bring out his book of West Indies cricket photographs from the last 20 years.

As the only photographer to accompany the West Indian team, his is a comprehensive collection. It begins with Geoffrey Boycott bowled by Michael Holding, his off stump only just making it into the wide-angled frame, and ends with Curtly Ambrose's final wave goodbye to The Oval crowd in 2000. In between Brooks's camera captures the delight and trauma of two decades of West Indies cricket, with Richards, Garner, Marshall, Richardson and Hooper all displayed in their pomp. The team's slowly declining arc is dappled with individual bright spots; Courtney Walsh celebrating his record-breaking 377th wicket, Lara crowd-dodging after his 213 at Jamaica levelled the 1998-1999 series against Australia.

Bulging with match pictures, peppered with informative (if occasionally misspelt) captions from Tony Cozier, and seasoned with forewords from Wes Hall and Clive Lloyd, it will be enjoyed by West Indies fans as an addition to their coffee table. But it seems a shame to publish Brooks's work in black and white - the grounds and the crowds of the Caribbean lose some of their most appealing features. And there is a frustrating lack of off-field pictures. Surely, with his longstanding relationship with the team, Brooks has some more intimate shots that would have provided a welcome change of pace.

The adage that a picture tells a thousand words is certainly true in this case. One of the most powerful in the book shows Richardson, Hooper and Lara standing in the slips during the 1994-95 Bridgetown Test against Australia. Lara, hand on hips, head down, leans with arm outstretched on Hooper's shoulder; Hooper strokes his chin morosely; Richardson is passing a hand over his eyes. It represents not only the dawning realisation of inescapable defeat but the arrival of a new, less glorious era of West Indies cricket.

Brooks will not be alone in hoping soon have brighter, happier images in his sights.