West Indies have lacked a strong leader

Strong leaders were needed to unite and grow a cricket team from the West Indies, not a country but a diverse region. Frank Worrell was one, Clive Lloyd another, so was Viv Richards. In the Age, Greg Baum writes that there has been no one after them to break the freefall West Indies cricket finds itself in, after the latest player payment crisis forced the cancellation of the India tour.

West Indian cricket is nearly irrelevant. Yet their teams still are populated by cricketers who a Caribbean commentator once characterised as "a bit too pleased with themselves". Chris Gayle epitomised them: such a devastating player, so insouciant. No successor to Worrell and Lloyd emerged to temper and tame.