WI Hurt my eyes-best of Strokes

It is becoming increasingly painful to listen to or watch the West Indies playing against the overpowering Aussies.

The performance of the team is now creating a three-day Test phenomenon on the international stage, and one wonders if we'll see another two-day Test, a repeat of the historic second Test at Lord's during West Indies last tour to England.

The responsibility must lay somewhere;, however, perhaps with the team's management, maybe the captain, certainly the other members of the team, or maybe it's just an act of God.

The problem though, is finding the solutions quickly, in order to avoid further embarrassment on this crucial tour Down Under.

The Windies have already conceded the record for the most consecutive Test victories to the Australians by easily capitulating in the first two Tests in which the opponents were required to bat only once.

Once again, the ingeniousness, pride and commitment of our world-class batsman, Brian Lara, have got to be seriously questioned.

Duty to region

The state of our game at present, though not for the first time since the turn of the '90s, has been wounded badly, and we in the Caribbean must remind the players of their duty to the region, who have gained a sense of identity from this great game.

If Lara is ever to be considered a great player, then he has to rise to this occasion and perform at his best for the rest of the series.

The vulnerability of the West Indies has never been so great, and what's more, the rebuilding process has never been so shabby.

For example, this is the first tour in some time where a deputy wicket-keeper has been selected, and immediately Ridley Jacobs has produced a defiant 96 not out, although in a losing cause.

Perhaps he now recognises the need for better and more consistent performances. The selectors were far too late in appreciating this very basic fact.

Further, young Ramnaresh Sarwan, the star from the England tour, was on the verge of being left out of the second Test after his first Test failures, were it not for Shivnarine Chanderpaul's injury.

What kind of encouragement would that have been, given the extremely poor batting displays by the team in Australia so far?

I thought it was ludicrous in the first place for Jimmy Adams to have a batsman sitting in the pavilion when his team is struggling to make 200 runs. We simply can not afford this luxury.