Good, bad and indifferent

"I want to be a part of that resurgence. I want to see us get back to the top... It's so important everyone is involved - the selectors, the public, the administrators, the cricketers - have all got to be moving in the same direction and not fighting each other if we want to move forward.... Who leads the team is not of major importance as long as everybody puts in 100 per cent in a positive manner."

What a difference a week makes.

The message from Brian Lara is essentially the same, but how much more encouraging and hopeful were his words in London on Monday compared to the frustration-laced outburst in Kingston mere minutes after his West Indies team had lost the Test and the series to India at Sabina Park.

Yet, if the intention was first to violently rock the boat before making it clear he had no intention yet of jumping ship, then the West Indies captain has made his point. The issue now is, will any of it make any difference at the critical decision-making level of the regional administration?

As with any other meeting of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), tomorrow's gathering of members and directors in Barbados is generating considerable speculation as to what visionary, controversial or altogether foolish decisions will be made, especially in the almost immediate aftermath of Lara's unbridled disaffection with officialdom for their apparent reluctance to give him more direct influence in matters relating to the senior team.

Indeed, it is true to say that any one decision by the WICB can generate reactions that are good, bad and indifferent all at the same time, simply because there are so many people with so many different views about what is right, what is wrong and, most importantly it seems, who is to blame for the state of West Indies cricket both on and off the field.

The next time you are in the company of cricket fans, just throw out the issue of what is wrong with West Indies cricket and see how many different and highly emotive responses you get, each advocate of whatever issue thoroughly convinced that once so-and-so is done, then it's only a matter of time before we get back up to the top where we belong.

If only it were that easy.

Change in command or in the format of the game will not solve the problems that West Indies cricket is facing today © Getty Images

Truth is, as most us really know deep down, there is no quick fix to a very complex and wide-ranging problem, not a foreign coach, not a new captain, not two tearaway fast bowlers, not even the Stanford 20/20.

Those diehard believers in the overnight turnaround have now been waiting 11 years since Mark Taylor's Australians shattered the West Indies aura of invincibility. That's a long time to be sleeping.

Well, it's about time the Rip van Winkles - from the boardroom to the dressing room to the lunchroom - open their eyes and take in a Caribbean cricket landscape that, in keeping with our general preoccupation with things irrelevant, has only changed superficially in terms of impressive new structures, constant noise and endless partying.

If all of this is intended to maximise global exposure and tourist revenue in the aftermath of next year's World Cup, fine. But what difference will it make to the long-term viability of the game?

It is almost impossible not to believe that too many people are directly involved in West Indies cricket primarily for what they can get out of it. No one is suggesting that only generous benefactors and selfless philanthropists should be involved, but unless the key personnel see the bigger picture, all of the selectorial changes here, and grassier pitches there, will make no fundamental difference.

Part of that bigger picture is appreciating that they are all parts of the same whole. From the evidence of the wildly inconsistent performances on the field to occasional administrative bungling to the still unsettled relationship between the WICB and the Players' Association, it is clear that very few are prepared to step out of their own shoes and consider the challenges from different perspectives.

Lara's comments about everyone moving in the same direction and giving a wholehearted effort in a positive manner essentially sums up what should really be done, except that, again, it all comes down to sometimes sacrificing personal ambition for collective gain.

The captain is in the fortunate and, to some, enviable position of having achieved almost all that he has ever wanted to on a personal level as a cricketer. Now, with the western horizon drawing ever closer, he feels no sense of real loss in putting a greater focus on being both a mentor to his players and the globally-recognised spokesman on West Indies cricket.

But the same cannot be said of so many others in key positions in the regional game who still have axes to grind, people to cut down to size and points to prove, all for the sake of leaving no one in doubt as to really has the power in their hands.

That is why, after all the speculation and heated reaction, nothing meaningful will come out of tomorrow's meeting in Barbados, never mind who has been jettisoned and who is now on board. Like the performances in the recent series, which fuelled hope only to end in disappointment, the to-ing and fro-ing over selectors and directors are just different waves in the same turbulent ocean.

It takes real leadership to chart a course to calmer waters.