THE EDITOR: Somebody needs to stop the terrible pain that has been inflicted upon Caribbean cricket fans by the WI players and administrators for far too long as it shows no signs of stopping on its own.

For some 30 long years the West Indies cricketers have made a name for themselves, not in any good way, but instead as being the laughing stock of the cricketing world as players and administrators come and go with no improvement.

Despite all the old talk from those in charge of WI cricket, there is a common and recurring theme of one set of administrators and players outperforming their predecessor in terms of breaking the collective heart of those of us who desperately love 'the maroon' team.

Without a collective and disciplined movement to clean up the morass that is pervasive in Cricket West Indies (CWI) and produce world-beating teams to represent the region once more, WI cricket may die.

The Test cricket team that has been selected to tour Australia later this year leaves little room for optimism for the future whatsoever and it emphasises the point that the CWI has no idea how to deal with the fact that the cricket of the Netherlands, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, among other newcomers to the gentleman's game, is now above the WI's own at the ongoing T20I World Cup in Australia.

A careful look at the chosen squad is very disturbing, to say the least, because it contains no batsmen who has any chance of averaging over 50 runs in the two-Test series. As a matter of fact, it may be very delusional to expect any of them to even average over 40 runs as the Aussies happily make WI grovel in a manner that even our grandchildren are going to very painfully feel.

It must be said that no matter how the CWI celebrates the greatness of our fast bowlers like Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales and Jason Holder, it is runs on the board that are required to be competitive when the Windies takes the field of play in Australia in what seemingly portends to be a Christmas the WI would be lucky to forget, fresh on the heels of a disgraceful performance at the World Cup.

Now consider that the WI Test team could look like this: 1. Kraigg Braithwaite, 2. Chandrapaul Hemraj, 3. Nkurmah Bonner, 4. Keacy Carty, 5. Jermaine Blackwood, 6. Nicholas Pooran, 7. Jason Holder, 8. Rahkeem Cornwall, 9. Kemar Roach, 10. Alzarri Joseph, 11. Jayden Seales.

Second 11: 1. Kavem Hodge, 2. Leonardo Julien, 3. Alick Athenaze, 4. Shimron Hetmyer, 5. Kyle Mayers, 6. Joshua Da Silva, 7. Keemo Paul, 8. Joshua James, 9. Ashmeed Nedd, 10. Marquinho Mindley, 11. Chemar Holder.

Ones for WI to watch: 1. Romario Shepherd, 2. Shane Dowrich, 3. Kirk McKenzie, 4. Akin Fraser, 5. Gukadesh Mootie, 6. Nayeem Young, 7. McKenny Clarke, 8. Keegan Simmons, 9. Brian Charles, 10. Joshua Bishop, 11. Shermon Lewis.

FITZROY OTHELLO

Princes Town