Stop building on weak foundations

This certainly must rank as the most depressing period in West Indies cricket.

Ten straight defeats overseas, losses in nine of our 11 last Test matches tell the story.

Not even in the early 1970s when we lost to Ajit Wadekars Indian team for the first time in 1971, drew every single match the following season to an average New Zealand side and then were beaten 2-0 by Ian Chappells Australians, was it so disheartening and painful.

Then we could at least point to Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran as players of exceptional talent. Its not quite the same these days.

We have not produced a world-class bowler since Curtly Ambrose burst onto the scene in the 1988 season. Since then Australia have produced McGrath, Warne and now seemingly Brett Lee; Pakistan - Waqar, Mushtaq and Saqlain; and South Africa - Pollock along with capable all-rounders such as Kallis and Klusener.

The long and short of the story is that we are not producing quality players and the time has long passed for us to re-examine the structure of our cricket and the need for our fledging cricketers to have more first-class experience before they enter the Test arena.

We have a weak base in the Caribbean. The feeder for our future Test players - the Shell Shield and its successors - has been second-rate ever since the rebel tour to South Africa removed the under-belly in one fell swoop in 1983. That and the county limitations imposed on overseas players by the English have stagnated the Caribbean game and reduced us to also-rans in world cricket.

Brian Lara has not been the motivator and tactician we hoped he would be, but he is not all to blame and his removal as captain will not solve the problem.