West Indies' sad decline

In the Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry lists three reasons for the fall of West Indies cricket from the glory days - the lack of quality openers, the West Indies board, and their captain Darren Sammy.

In the last 20 years West Indies have produced only one consistently good opening batsman: Chris Gayle. All the others have been found wanting. Their domestic structure — a few first-class games on pitches which the West Indian board have allowed to become ever slower — is inadequate.

All talk of the new West Indies' team spirit and character needs to be put in perspective, as they prepare for their toughest challenge yet, in England. And it remains to be seen if the coach Otis Gibson will be allowed to build on any perceived gains from the series just ended, writes Fazeer Mohammed in Trinidad and Tobago Express.

Uprooting the deeply-embedded ills of West Indies cricket and replanting and nurturing a culture of professionalism, with all the dedication and discipline it entails, takes considerable time. Given that he has already rubbed so many of the star boys who used to be regulars of the side the wrong way, any tide of discontent against him may swell to an irresistible tsunami if the feared seismic events at Lord's, Trent Bridge and Edgbaston come to pass.