MIGHTY SAD, isn't it, that we, West Indies fans, are now content to console ourselves with the margin of defeat after suffering yet another Test cricket loss, so accustomed have we become to losing and mediocre performances from our cricketers who perform just as embarrassingly as the consistency of their failures.
Even when the end result - like the third Test 60-run defeat to England chasing a mammoth 455 to win - is not embarrassing, there are other areas of the West Indies team's cricket, such as its atrocious fielding and first-innings batting collapse when its last six wickets tumbled for 13 runs, which serve as a bitter reminder of how poor our standards really are.
There is nothing new about this trend either. This collapsing mode and inability to win, especially away from home, has been going on for years.
WORST STATISTICS
Apart from tours in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, cricket's minnows, the West Indies have played in 16 Test series dating back to 1995 - 12 years - withoutwinning one. That is the worst away statistic amongst major Test-playing countries.
Additionally, in 10 years of touring, the West Indies have won only one Test match, when they were beaten 3-1 by England in the 2000 series. And during that decade, the team has been beaten in matches away from home on a massive 43 occasions.
The soft, almost welcome reaction to the last, was set up by the previous faade at Headingley where the Windies were pummeled for an innings and 285, failing to surpass 145 in either innings after England had plundered 570 for seven.
The team's batting was hit hard by the absence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and during the match, injury to captain Ramnaresh Sarwan.
In the meantime, both openers, captain Daren Ganga and Christopher Gayle, are unable to set any platform whatsoever for the team as they have failed.
Gayle has bowled plenty -60.5 overs since the start of the series - and this must be affecting his batting. Two of three specialist fast bowlers, Jerome Taylor (80 overs) and Daren Powell (79), have not bowled considerably more than Gayle.
The big left-hander also bats at the crucial opening position when the bowlers are most fresh and the ball does most off the pitch in terms of bounce and sideways movement.
At that period, the concentration has to be at its peak. Tired bodies don't concentrate at maximum levels and bowling must contribute to making Gayle more tired.
The West Indies should consider not bowling Gayle at all and let him open the innings, or bat him down the order and open with Devon Smith.
Gayle's problem was brought on mainly by a grave selection error in not taking any spinner on tour. How much they would love to have had Dave Mohammed in England now, and even though I'm speaking of a spinner, we can't leave out Brian Lara, who had at least two solid years of batting left in his great soul.
Unfair treatment
Robert Samuels replaced Sarwan on tour as a batter who can also spin the ball and strangely, was leftout, and even stranger, wrote to the enigmatic West Indies Cricket Board about being discriminated against by Australian coaches.
The board and selectors, are clearly at odds over the captaincy and selection issues for the one-day team.
I wonder what they're thinking of Samuels' plea that he's being treated unfairly - given batting practice after everyone else and when the bowlers are tired.
The Jamaican says he's been getting that treatment for some time and it had changed through Clive Lloyd's influence after complaining in a team meeting. I wonder what the current coach David Moore has to say, how will he react?
Is it that Moore knew he wasn't going to play Samuels in the third Test so he didn't think it necessary to afford him valuable batting practice, or, is it just the coach's discrimination coming into play yet again?
At least somebody's talking now, which is not normally the case within the realms of West Indies cricketing matters - matters that are as shrouded in rumour, in a manner not dissimilar to the ways in which we console ourselves in contentment due to the margin of defeat.
