REGIONAL SELECTORS, I hope, would have been carefully examining the talent on display in the Carib Beer Series competition to shore up the West Indies Test squad, which ended up losing the Test series 2-1 in its current South Africa tour.

Straight off the bat, the result, by far, represents the best West Indies' cricketing performance against that country on its past three tours (this one included) and a surprising one at that, given that they were blown away 4-0 and 5-0 on previous visits to the African nation.

There is also a vast difference between the countries' International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings - South Africa at number two and the West Indies at eight.

And given that while the West Indies have advanced to become a very competitive one-day international team in recent years, mirrored mainly by their ICC Champions Trophy success and runners-up placing in the past two competitions, as well as one-off series confrontations against the top ranked countries, they have done poorly in the longer version of the game. The results therefore, were somewhat encouraging.

In the first Test at Port Elizabeth, the West Indies won by 128 runs after scoring 408 and 175, compared to South Africa's respective first and second innings totals of 195 and 260.

The hosts rebounded to win the second by seven wickets at Cape Town, having restricted the West Indies to 243 and 262; and making 321 and 188 for three wickets.

South Africa then clinched the series at Durban, winning by an innings and 100 runs after dismissing the West Indies for a paltry first innings total of 139 - when they were dismissed shortly after lunch; then 317. South Africa amassed 554 for four declared in their only innings, to force a result that was comparable to those of the previous tours when the Windies were obliterated.

It is clear that the West Indies' performances got worse or, in other words, they were beaten more comprehensively, as the series lengthened. This coincided with a series of factors that negated the ability of several of the team's key players to perform at a high level through injury.

When it started

It really started from the second Test when fast bowler Fidel Edwards broke down after 3.5 overs in the South Africa first innings. At one stage the South Africans, replying to the Windies' 243, were struggling at 133 for five, but rebounded with a partnership of 129 between Ashwell Prince and Mark Boucher as the other three front-line bowlers, Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor and Dwayne Bravo, got tired.

The team's captain, Chris Gayle, suffered from a recurrence of the hamstring injury that kept him out the practice games and was forced to return to the crease at number 11 in an effort to try and save the Test.

Gayle had actually made a tremendous impact, both mentally and contribution-wise, while scoring a 49-ball 66 in the opening innings of the series at Port Elizabeth. His injury robbed the West Indies of that sort of command, self-assurance and stability at the top of the innings, to set a platform on which others could build.

The absence of this sort of impact was most evident in the third Test when things got terribly worse as the team, apart from not having Gayle's batting character and influence, also had to do without its most reliable batsman, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who also got injured in the third Test and couldn't bat in the second innings, while its vice-captain Dwayne Bravo, one of the designated main bowlers, could only bat due to injury.

Edwards, touch and go up to the 11th hour for the third Test, returned from injury but had obviously deviated from his earlier performances.

The West Indies had to be forcing injured players to play while it had replacements who weren't used like batsman Devon Smith and spinner Rawl Lewis.

It points to a serious lack of depth which can only be corrected with replacements who must prove that they have the game and attitude for international level cricket.

In much the same way that some of these players like Edwards and Bravo have been rewarded with playing time to enhance their potential and development, regional selectors need to deeply analyse the talent existing in the regional pool, take the ones who are really exceptional and blood them to make stronger squads for serious competition and build on the encouraging signs coming out of the South Africa Tests.