They will not be overly optimistic but most people across the Caribbean will be hoping that the Test series starting in England today will mark the beginning of the turnaround of West Indies cricket.

Of course, few will be queuing up to wager on a West Indies victory in either the four-Test series or the one-day internationals. What the region hopes, though, is that, at the very least, their team will be competitive.

We, too, hope, but are rather doubtful; with good reason, we believe. In the first instance, despite the West Indian debacle in the recent Cricket World Cup hosted by the Caribbean, we do not sense that the region's players have yet grasped the depth and the breadth of the issue. They do not seem to realise how much they bear the aspirations of Caribbean people and the personal investment that is required of them to turn the game around.

Should anyone question the detachment of the players from the matter, they need only consider the remarks of Chris Gayle, the batting all-rounder and senior player, about the efforts by the West Indian management to instil discipline in the team. The rag-tag, off-field approach by the West Indians has often been commented on. In the middle of matches, players have been observed in late-night partying. While travelling as a team, players are often mismatched and bordering on the dishevelled.

Quite correctly, the West Indies Cricket Board is using the opportunity of a new captain, in Ramnaresh Sarwan, to enforce a new code of behaviour and attitudinal standards for the team. They have been told what will not be tolerated and the captain has, in turn, received specific undertakings of support from the board. Among the first order of business is the decision by the tour manager, Mike Findlay, to impose evening curfews on the team.

We would have thought after the dismal showing in the World Cup, the failure of the team over a prolonged period and a wish for renewal with the changing of the leadership guard, that such a regime would have been welcomed and given full backing by the senior players. Well, we were wrong.

Chris Gayle would prefer a laissez-faire, free-for-all. On the eve of today's first Test at Lord's, he told reporters in London that he does not agree with the curfew; he is only going along with it as team policy.

Mr. Gayle would "like the guys to be more free to do what they want to do for the lead-up to the first Test". Hey, this is good old London. Find yourself a pub; have yourself a jolly old time. Play indifferent cricket. Who cares? You'll get paid, anyway.

For those who will claim that we are being unfair to Chris Gayle, whom we expect, by words and deeds, to help to set an example for a new, resurgent West Indies, our position is hardly extreme. They have been here before. It was not so long ago that having been skittled out for a low total and a humiliating Test defeat against England, senior West Indians found themselves partying at the Mound at Sabina Park.

Mike Findlay must not budge on the curfew.