'It has been quite a show'

Indeed the tournament has surpassed expectations, providing a richness absent in technically superior endeavours. The Champions League (CL) has had several particular attractions that have made this first edition all the more enjoyable. First and foremost CL has none of the tiresome flag waving that emerges when countries lock horns. Oscar Wilde was wrong. Patriotism is admirable and Nationalism is the scourge. No good comes of it.

At the same time they strengthened the case for breaking up West Indies as a cricketing entity and leaving each nation to its own devices. After all, West Indies exists largely for cricketing purposes. Otherwise it is a region with its own complexities and complexes loosely bound together by geography, history and common practices, but as prone to self-interest as any other collection of countries. Moreover, one of the West Indies’ most prominent contributors, Guyana, is actually a South American nation struggling to recover from the toppling decades ago by the British secret service of a duly elected leader.