Lendl Simmons rubs England's noses in the dirt

The danger in writing about the decline of West Indies cricket is that it can be overplayed. There are, as England are discovering here in St Kitts against West Indies A, still some very good players in the Caribbean - players who combine natural athletic gifts, an instinct for the game and plentiful ambition, writes Mike Atherton in the Times.

If the declaration was delayed with demoralisation in mind, then it succeeded to an extent as England's fielding disintegrated even if the bowling was never less than wholehearted. One moment of comedy, for example, brought six overthrows to add to a single off Graeme Swann, who endured a chastening couple of days, conceding 160 runs from 41 wicketless overs. Normally a jovial chap, his sense of humour deserted him.

England's captain wanted warm-up games to "challenge his players how they might play in a Test match", though he did not bargain on getting a history lesson in utter demoralisation as well, writes Derek Pringle in the Telegraph.

England tried everything to get a wicket – silly bowling actions, silly field settings. They even managed the odd decent over but nothing could disturb Simmons, who seems to have Brian Lara's appetite for the big score. When he finally went, he was officially lbw to Ryan Sidebottom, but the shot, a whip across the line, suggested a man getting bored by his own dominance.

"We bat today, you bat tomorrow," Ian Bell had been told by the opposition – orders, one suspected, from a higher authority in Jamaica. Throughout, the England bowling was industrious and at times, as the heat intensified and the dust flew, better than that. The towel was never thrown in. Only the fielding broke down in worrying fashion, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.

Whatever plans England had for starting life under Andrew Strauss they may not have included the continuing onslaught at Warner Park yesterday. At times it became so laughably grotesque that it was easy to believe that this was where the brothers who bear the same name as the ground made all those horror movies, writes Stephen Brenkley in the Independent.